When: Friday, April 17
Where: Le Spot in Old Hull (Québec) (please ask for address). 
Doors: 7 pm
Music: 7.30 pm
20$ / pay what you can / no one turned away for lack of funds

Accessibility info: the venue is on the ground floor with one small step at the entrance doorway and one small step leading to the main hall. The bathroom is not wheelchair accessible. We have earplugs and water. BYOB.

Tatsuya Nakatani returns to Ottawa for a special solo show. Tatsuya Nakatani is an avant-garde percussionist, composer, and artist of sound. Active internationally since the 1990s, Nakatani has released over 80 recordings and tours extensively, performing over 150 concerts a year. His primary focus is his solo work and his large ensemble project, the Nakatani Gong Orchestra. He teaches master classes and lectures at universities and music conservatories around the world. Originally from Japan, he makes his home in the desert town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. With his activity in new music, improvisation, and experimental music, Nakatani has a long history of collaboration.

Nakatani’s distinctive music centered around his adapted bowed gong, supported by an array of drums, cymbals, and singing bowls. In consort with his personally hand-carved Kobo Bows, he has spent decades refining and developing his sound as an arrangement of formations of vibrations, incorporated in shimmering layers of silence and texture. Within this contemporary work, one can still recognize the dramatic pacing, formal elegance and space (ma) felt in traditional Japanese music.

Opening the show are David Broscoe (Saxophone), David Jackson (Guitar and Electronics), Mark Molnar (Cello), and Scott Warren (Percussion and Electronics).

Sadly, cellist Janel Leppin informed us yesterday that her group Ensemble Volcanic Ash would have to cancel their upcoming IMOO appearance on Saturday due to a band member’s illness. Sarah Hughes (alto saxophonist in Ensemble Volcanic Ash) and Stephen Arnold (bass) will play in their place, performing both as a duo and joined by some long-time IMOO regulars for some ad-hoc improvisations.

Revealed at last, the second greatest comeback in Easter history! I know we previously said that IMOO was ending in December but I decided that one last bash was needed to give it a proper send-off. So this is it: June 8th and 9th. The final moovement! Back at Glebe-St. James, after receiving unanimous praise for the space from artists and audience alike last October.

The Saturday program will begin with Montreal baritone saxophonist Ida Toninato presenting her extended solo electroacoustic piece Lions on the Run. Following her performance will be Ensemble Volcanic Ash, led by Washington, DC cellist and composer Janel Leppin and featuring her guitarist husband Anthony Pirog (who will also be performing in Ottawa with The Messthetics on May 15th). Their IMOO performance will come about three weeks before the official street date of their upcoming second CD for Cuneiform Records, but I suspect there will be copies available at the show. Closing out the Saturday program will be longtime Ottawa and IMOO favourites Rakestar, featuring very special guest vocalist and conductor Christine Duncan (Barnyard Drama, Element Choir, etc.).

Montreal guitarist Eric Quach, who presented his Houses of Worship duo at our 2022 Spring Fling, will open Sunday’s program with his solo drone project THISQUIETARMY. Following him will be the quartet New Language Collaborative, featuring frequent IMOO alumnus Ellwood Epps with Boston-area associates Eric Zinman, Glynis Lomon, and Matt Crane. To close out the weekend, Ottawa percussionist Jesse Stewart will present a duo with legendary AACM musician Douglas Ewart. This could also become an unofficial CD release show, but I am less confident that their upcoming duo album will be ready that soon.

Tickets are available now. Buy them early! Buy them often! Our price: $50. Cheap!

01234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556575859606162636465666768697071727374757677787980	Weekend Pass	50.00 CAD
01234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556575859606162636465666768697071727374757677787980	Saturday Only	30.00 CAD
01234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556575859606162636465666768697071727374757677787980	Sunday Only	30.00 CAD

Your eTicket will be emailed after payment to your PayPal email address.

Mark your calendars! The Ghost of IMOOs Past will be making a rare appearance for two nights in June. The complete lineup will be announced soon, but so far includes confirmed artists from Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, and Baltimore.

Here we are at the end of the beginning of the beginning of the end. We end our 13 year run with our annual AYLERMAS show with a host of Ayler Alum which is so far davidbroscoerorymagillscottwarrenlinseywellmanadamsaikeleyconnorbennetmarkmolnardavidjackson and possibly hopefully more and more.

Carols, ghosts, random singing, witches, memories to St Bernard and St Giles, psychic hearts to CP and RY, Music at 7:30, $20 dollar suggested donation, no one turned away for any reason, all money will be given away (TBD)

“bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-nuk!”

A look back at every IMOO venue, sorted by number of performances hosted. Some of them are even still in business!

Umi Café (102 Shows) – This defunct coffee shop in Chinatown was our regular home for our first four years (2010-2014) and hosted the most IMOO shows by a wide margin.

House of Common / General Assembly / Cinqhole (53 Shows) – IMOO needed a new regular home after Raw Sugar Café closed its doors in December 2015 and Sothea Kham and Bruno Souliere came through for us in a big way, opening up their space in Hintonburg for 50 shows in a little over three years (April 2016 through May 2019). Under new management in autumn 2019, the re-branded Cinqhole continued hosting shows until the venue became a victim of COVID.

Raw Sugar Café (21 Shows) – When Umi closed for renovations in summer 2014 we moved a few blocks west to Raw Sugar, located directly under the Chinatown gate. Raw Sugar also hosted some quite significant non-IMOO shows over the years, including the likes of Peter Evans and Mary Halvorson.

Black Squirrel Books (14 Shows) – Ottawa’s finest used book store was also a frequent host to live music pre-COVID, including 14 IMOO shows between 2014 and 2019.

Spark Beer (13 Shows) – Our post-COVID regular home, Spark has hosted us 13 times since July 2022.

Club SAW (13 Shows) – SAW hosted IMOO Fest in 2012, 2014, and 2022 along with a handful of other shows.

Gigspace (11 Shows) – Gigspace hosted IMOO Fest in 2013, 2018, 2019, and 2022, along with our 2022 “Spring Fling” celebrating our post-COVID return to live music.

The Record Centre (5 Shows) – John Thompson has presented more than 250 in-store performances in his Hintonburg record store, including a smattering of IMOO performances.

Glebe-St. James United Church (4 Shows) – GSJ hosted IMOO Fest 2018 and 2023 and the recent Hübsch / Martel / Zoubek performance in November 2023.

Des Plages (3 Shows) – Simone and Dana hosted some of the final IMOO shows at their “secret” Hull location throughout 2023.

Pressed Café (2 Shows) – This defunct Gladstone venue presented hundred of concerts including IMOO shows in 2013 and 2015.

DAIMON (2 Shows) – This Hull arts centre hosted IMOO shows in January 2015 – a live recording session for Linsey’s “Manifesto” solo album – and again in January 2016 for the album release show.

Flapjack’s (2 Shows) – The Preston Street diner hosted IMOO shows in February and April 2016 before we found House of Common as our new permanent venue.

Bar Robo (1 Show) – The former Raw Sugar Café hosted one further IMOO concert after its radical renovation and re-branding. Their original Chinatown location is long gone, but Robo continues to present live music at their current Queen Street Fare location.

House of Targ (1 Show) – Hosted an electronic music night co-presented by IMOO and Switch On Synths in March 2023.

LIVE! On Elgin (1 Show) – Hosted the Maria Moles + Instant Places show in October 2023.

La Fonderie (1 Show) – This athletic center in Hull presented “Endless Landscape” a large art installation in summer 2017. For one night during the exhibition, IMOO regulars Linsey, Rory, Ian, and Laura gave roaming performances throughout the installations.

Korean Palace VIP Karaoke Bar (1 Show) – The Umi Café accidentally double-booked their space in July 2012, so for one night only IMOO was moved upstairs to the karaoke lounge.

Brad’s Basement (1 Show) – The audience barely out-numbered the musicians (6 to 4) in this 2017 house concert, held during the brief transition from House of Common to General Assembly.

Saturday December 2nd Doors 7:30pm $20 Suggested, PWYC, NOTAFLOF 135 rue Eddy in Hull (Gatineau), the “public” entrance is through a side door. Shhhhh

Xavier Charles (FR) – clarinet
Ivar Grydeland (N) – guitar
Christian Wallumrød (N) – piano
Ingar Zach (N) – percussion

Dans les arbres is an improvising ensemble comprising French clarinettist Xavier Charles and the three Norwegians pianist Christian Wallumrød, guitarist Ivar Grydeland, and percussionist Ingar Zach.

“This unique improvising quartet (…) continues to fine-tune its artistic concept with a rare sense of accord, and shared responsibilities.” (ECM Records)

The group’s idiosyncratic inhabitants form unusual combinations of airy, wooden, metallic sounds, prepared strings and tampered drum heads. Their world of sounds and the fine sense of communication, lead to collective playing and spontaneous group- composing named to be in a “class of its own”. Their music moves gently but steadily ahead on broad planes of sound. The dynamic textural sceneries evolve as Dans les arbres harnesses its wealth of unorthodox extended techniques.

Since the recording of their first album in 2006, Dans les arbres has performed more than 150 concerts around the globe. The two releases on ECM Records and one on Hubro – the self-titled debut “Dans Les Arbres” (2008), “Canopée” (2012) and “Phosphorescence” (2017) have received praise from reviewers and audiences alike. In October 2019 the group’s fourth album “Volatil” was released on the label SOFA, and in November 2019 they launched “Mausoleum” – their first download-only-album on Bandcamp. Dans les arbres was nominated for the prestigious Nordic Music Prize 2015.

Dans les arbres have performed with guest musicians such as Yumiko Tanaka, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O ́Rourke, Alexander Ruck Santos, Australian Speak Percussion, the Norwegian duo Vilde & Inga and The Norwegian Wind Ensemble. Together with singers and Oslo Sinfonietta they performed the piece “About Nature” by Henrik Hellstenius at the Oslo Opera House in 2015.

“There’s no end to the delights of this quite magical disc. The finest composition, like improvisation, ultimately relies on intuition, and these players seem to have an innate grasp of the right combination of sounds and textures. Dans les arbres must be one of the finest ECM Improv releases – indeed, releases from any label – in recent years.” (The Wire)

More infomation on the musicians can be found here:

Xavier Charles

Ivar Grydeland

Christian Wallumrød

Ingar Zach

Français :
AC//CC est une formation poético-musicale composée de Sarah Albu à la voix et objets,
Belinda Campbell au piano et électroniques, Marilou Craft à la poésie, textes ou manipulations
de toutes sortes et Eric Craven aux percussions. Le rencontre est née lors du lancement de
l’album CUCH-187 60X44 de l’étiquette de disque Cuchabata Records en juin 2022. Depuis lors
le groupe a participé à une des éditions du Mardi Spaghetti à la Casa Del Popolo en obtobre
2022, au Festival Metropolis Bleu en avril 2023 et finalement au Suoni Per Il Popolo en juin

Jusqu’à présent, leurs performances totalement improvisées surgissent de l’amalgame
entre les choix de textes de Craft et la musique de Albu, Campbell et Craven.
Nos performances sont totalement improvisées. Marilou Craft décide quelques instants avant ce
qu’elle lira, s’adaptant à la musique qui se crée au moment même. Cela peut prendre la forme
de collage de ses textes, de recueils en entier ou de piger dans la culture populaire des
inspirations ponctuelles comme par exemple de lire des réponses d’entrevues de Céline Dion.
Les musiciens sur scène se nourrissent les uns les autres dans un mélange spontané de mots,
de sons, de textures, de rythme ou de mélodie.

AC/CC
AC//CC is a poetic-musical formation composed of Sarah Albu on voice and objects, Belinda
Campbell on piano and electronics, Marilou Craft on poetry, texts or manipulations of all kindsand Eric Craven on percussion. The meeting was born during the launch of the album CUCH-
187 60X44 from the Cuchabata Records record label in June 2022. Since then the group has

participated in one of the editions of Mardi Spaghetti at Casa Del Popolo in October 2022, at the
Blue Metropolis Festival in April 2023 and finally at Suoni Per Il Popolo in June 2023. So far,
their totally improvised performances arise from the amalgam between Craft’s text choices and
the music of Albu, Campbell and Craven.
Our performances are completely improvised. Marilou Craft decides a few moments before what
she will read, adapting to the music that is being created at the same time. This can take the
form of collages of his texts, entire collections or drawing from popular culture for specific
inspirations such as reading answers to interviews with Celine Dion. The musicians on stage
feed each other in a spontaneous mixture of words, sounds, textures, rhythm or melody.

tunu

is a free improvised music duo. guitar and effects, drums, jazz and kraut oriented, open to possibilities.

Dana Wiesbrock – guitar and effects

Jamie Charbonneau – drums

Glebe-St. James United Church, Friday November 17th

20 dollar minimum suggested donation, PWYC, NOTAFLOF

Doors 7:30 PM and music at 8PM

Carl Ludwig Hübsch — tuba. objects

Pierre-Yves Martel — viola da gamba, modular synthesizer

Philip Zoubek — prepared piano

Bringing together Carl Ludwig Hübsch on tuba, Pierre-Yves Martel on viola da gamba and modular synthesizer, and Philip Zoubek on prepared piano, the Canadian-German trio Hübsch Martel Zoubek has been creating improvised music together for over a decade. Their paths converged in 2012 during an initial encounter at the Loft in Cologne. The recording of that performance gave birth to “June 16,” their debut album, launched on the Berlin label Schraum. Subsequently, the trio embarked on a series of tours, delivering more than 60 concerts across Europe and Canada. They also released albums such as “Drought” (Tour de bras, 2016), “Otherwise” (insub records, 2018), and “Ize” (insub, 2020), in addition to recording live concert sessions for Radio-France and the Austrian radio ORF. The distinctive instrumentation of Hübsch Martel Zoubek and their refined improvisational approach have allowed the trio to craft a unique language and sound over the years. The result is a pointillistic and intricate musical experience that unfolds through attentive listening, where traditional roles seamlessly blur.

HÜBSCH MARTEL ZOUBEK

Carl Ludwig Hübsch — tuba. objets

Pierre-Yves Martel — dessus de viole, synthétiseur modulaire

Philip Zoubek — piano préparéRéunissant Carl Ludwig Hübsch au tuba, Pierre-Yves Martel à la viole de gambe et au synthétiseur modulaire, et Philip Zoubek au piano préparé, le trio canado-allemand de musique improvisée Hübsch Martel Zoubek existe depuis plus de dix ans. Les chemins des trois artistes se sont croisés en 2012, lors d’une première rencontre en concert au Loft à Cologne. L’enregistrement de ce concert a donné naissance à June 16, leur premier album, lancé sur le label berlinois Schraum. Par la suite, le trio a enchaîné les tournées, jouant plus de 60 concerts tant en Europe qu’au Canada. Il a également sorti les disques Drought (Tour de bras, 2016), Otherwise (insub records, 2018) et Ize (insub, 2020), en plus d’avoir enregistré des sessions pour Radio-France et la radio autrichienne ORF. L’instrumentation hors du commun de Hübsch Martel Zoubek et sa démarche d’improvisation peaufinée au fil des années ont permis au trio de développer un langage et un son uniques. Il en résulte une musique calme et pointilliste, qui se développe dans une grande écoute et où les rôles traditionnels se confondent.

Humboldt Duo

Humboldt duo is a free musics duo currently based in Ottawa, Canada. The duo comprises of
Helen Abbot on viola and Jury Kobayashi on double bass. They met playing chamber music in
Vermont and have evolved into an experimental and free musics duo. Their music is collectively
composed and improvised.

Helen Abbot is a multidisciplinary artist, violist, and scholar. As a violist, she can be found
playing musics as diverse as Klezmer music, contemporary western art music to noise and free
musics. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at Western University with a focus on the
role of sound in Anaïs Nin’s Cities of the Interior.

Jury Kobayashi is an interdisciplinary artist,whose work ranges from musical composition, improvisation, noise, and sound art. Trained as a
musician and music historian, Jury is currently pursuing a creative doctoral degree at the
University of Ottawa focussing on the liberatory identity politics that can be present in free
musics.

Thanks to everyone who came out for last weekend’s IMOO Fest. The official paid attendance was 35 on Friday and 52 on Saturday, with the latter likely representing an IMOO record. Although this was billed as the final edition of IMOO Fest I haven’t completely closed the door on doing more shows. I still hope to do something again next year but it will be a more modest event, perhaps on a similar scale as last year’s Spring Fling.

As IMOO nears its end I thought it would be fun to look back at the IMOO Fest that never was. Planning for the 2020 edition began in October 2019 when I met saxophonist Vinny Golia at Ann Arbor’s EdgeFest and he agreed to come to Ottawa the following year as our featured “artist in residence”. Guitarist Ava Mendoza became our second confirmed booking in December 2019. By mid-February 2020 the programming was complete, and by the first week of March even the website was complete. But then about a week later…something happened. I won’t bore you with the details (you probably heard about it – it made most of the papers for a few days) but the result was that there would be no more IMOO shows – or live music in general – for a very long time.

Here, then, was the complete program for the aborted IMOO Fest 2020:

Friday September 11th:

• Yolande Laroche
• Instant Places + Provisional Mailorder Double Duo
• Vinny Golia / Ava Mendoza / Mark Molnar / Bennett Bedoukian

Saturday September 12th:

• Tamayugé
• Vinny Golia / Anna Webber / Linsey Wellman
• EAVE (Erik Hove, Anna Webber, Vicky Mettler, Evan Tighe)
• Ava Mendoza Guitar Sextet (with Wayne Eagles, Norm Howard, David Jackson, Vicky Mettler, Alex Pelchat)

Sunday September 13th:

• Thisquietarmy
• New Language Collaborative featuring Daniel Carter
• IMOO Orchestra featuring Vinny Golia

If you attended IMOO Fest 2022 then you can see that there were several similarities with the planned 2020 event. The quartet EAVE was dormant by 2022, but saxophonists Erik Hove and Anna Webber brought another project in its place, and Eric Quach (Thisquietarmy) and Ellwood Epps (of NLC) each brought different projects to our 2022 Spring Fling. Ava Mendoza – and the concept of presenting an all-guitar ensemble – remain the ones that got away.

Spark Beer Sunday November 5 Music at 8 PM Suggested donation $20 or PWYC/NOTAFLOF

Shoreline is a series of drone-core slabs created by Tom Richards. Each track is a meditation or obsession with a root. Special guests include a honeybee, a lawnmower, and renowned violinist Kip Jones. Shoreline is the frontier between solid and liquid, known and unknown. Bodies which are firm and rooted find themselves adrift, or sinking.

Day of the Wychwood is a drone collaboration between Wychwood (Chrissy Steinbock and Tim Kitz) and Day of Niagara (David Jackson).