Olafur Arnalds show

Tuesday night, I got a panic email from my co-promoter Steve from Suoni Per Il Popolo / Sala Rossa pointing me to The Drake Hotel's website, where it said that Olafur Arnalds & co. canceled their show in Toronto because their touring broke down in the middle of nowhere, Michigan.

With the help of Caleb from ericrock.com I managed to track them down. They were getting a new van from Chicago the next morning, which arrived a lot later than expected. Add the canadian border delays and the usual traffic jam through Mississauga/Toronto (note to self, always use the paying highway 407), Oli & crew got to the venue close to 11pm, while I was performing - after a 13 hours drive, and I had plug & play almost immediately as it was getting late.

That was one hell of a stressful night, but everything ended well. The turnout was good for a Wednesday, all expenses were covered - everyone's set were very good, especially Olafur's which was quite beautiful & heartbreaking. Thanks to Saccidananda & Suoni Per Il Popolo. You can check out some pics of the evening here.

Also, yes. I performed with the addition of an analog moog synth for the first time, adding basslines and leads. I did an impulsive & improvised strictly-synth set at lab.synthese back in may, but that was pretty free & experimental. This time, it blended well with the regular TQA material.

Do not miss Ólafur Arnalds in Montreal (July 16th) with thisquietarmy & Saccidananda

Suoni Per Il Popolo & This Quiet Army Records présentent:

Ólafur Arnalds, thisquietarmy & Saccidananda

Mercredi 16 Juillet 2008
La Sala Rossa, Montréal QC
4848 St-Laurent

10$ à la porte / 8$ à l'avance (billets en vente):

* Casa Del Popolo, 4873 St-Laurent
* Atom Heart, 364B Sherbrooke e.
* Cheap Thrills, 2044 Metcalfe (2e étage)
* L'Oblique, 4333 Rivard
* Phonopolis, 5403A Parc

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Programmation / Portes à 20h30pm:

21h00pm: Saccidananda
21h45pm: thisquietarmy
22h30pm: Ólafur Arnalds

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Ólafur Arnalds (Islande, Erased Tapes)
En tournée avec un quatuor de corde - pour les amateurs de l'Islande et Sigur Ros, Bjork, Johan Johansson…
www.olafurarnalds.com

What Erased Tapes says:

Fragile, emotional, classical indie music would maybe be the best term to describe Ólafur Arnalds' music. Combining classical instrumentation with an indierock aesthetic there are obvious comparisons to Sigur Ros, but Arnalds is sculpting his own epic, string-laden compositions.

Only 21 years of age, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside Reykjavík. He as immersed himself completely in the world of delicate symphonic compositions in a near weightless orchestral undertaking. Mixing strings and piano with loops, ambiance, electronics and beats. Debut album 'Eulogy for Evolution' (Now out in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK and Iceland!) takes the listener on a journey, representing different periods in life, from birth to death. The follow-up 5-track EP 'Variations of Static' so far has only been available as a limited tour edition. While keeping the classical foundations of his debut album, here Arnalds incorporates crackling electronics and the dead voice of a machine; like vague memories of tradition lost within the digital age we all live in.

Avec invités locaux:

* thisquietarmy (ambient/shoegaze)
www.myspace.com/thisquietarmy

Armé d'une guitare et d'une panoplie de pédales, Thisquietarmy esquisse ses fresques sonores en temps réel à l'aide d'échantilloneurs, qui sont soumises à différents processus de stratification, décomposition, reconstruction en mouvance perpétuelle pour aboutir à une musique instrumentale texturée qui s'avère rêveuse ou même cauchemardesque, dépendamment de l'ambience - le tout, accompagné de projections visuelles texturées pseudo-abstraites en noir & blanc. (pour les amateurs de Nadja/Aidan Baker, Tim Hecker, Destroyalldreamers, etc.)

* Saccidananda (post-jazz/math)
www.myspace.com/saccidananda

Découvrez le nouveau et jeune trio montréalais qui s'apprête à enregistrer avec Dave Bryant (Godspeed, Set Fire To Flames) aux studios Pines Recordings (Growing, Think About Life, The Hot Springs, Hrsta, etc.) à la fin du mois - - - pour les amateurs de Tortoise, Slint, Do Make Say Think, Mogwai, etc.)

Control & Lopez

Someone stole Ian Curtis' gravestone. Gah. Maybe someone have just seen Control, and believed that he's just the way Debbie has portrayed him. Anyway, good movie - see it if you haven't already, the pictures are gorgeous, signed Anton Corbijn.

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In other news, I went to see Francisco Lopez earlier this week. By "went to see", I mean I got blindfolded and sat in an outward concentric circle in the middle of a quadraphonic sound system configuration at the Sala Rossa, while he played (well, I don't know what he did, as I was blindfolded) ambient sounds. Unfortunately, they had to turn of the A/C probably because it would've distracted the whole experience, and it has gotten almost unbearably hot for the whole performance, which made it hard to get into because of the discomfort. The best part is the ending, when the sounds faded and you didn't know if it was finished or if something was coming back to frighten us. Someone started to bang their hands together, and the rest of the sheep followed and that was it.

The Art Lover

Making your 2008 Fantasia movie selection? Why not include the world premiere of 'The Art Lover', a 9-min short film by emerging Montreal director Andrew Krajewski. The film is described as Quentin Tarantino meets Jean Baudrillard in a bathtub: a hitman reminisces about killing an artist.

It features the song 'World Death Clock' by thisquietarmy, as well as snippets of other released songs. I haven't seen it yet, but this is what I've been told. Schedule it for July 20th, 7:00pm at the DB Clarke Theater.

More details here: http://www.fantasiafest.com/2008/en/films/film_detail.php?id=194

Edit: Andrew put it up on youtube.