Montréal musicians Shawn Mativetsky, Amir Amiri, and Sarah Pagé have each cultivated their own rich and polymorphous practice. With affiliations that connect to everything from various experimental projects to traditional and classical musics, song-driven outfits to total sonic hybridity, these three players are among their city's most cherished artists—and for good reason. As such, their trio, since its formation in 2019, has represented a dynamic, ongoing collision of unique experiences and methodologies.
Littoral States is a shifting, reciprocal project that explores affinities beyond time, place, tradition and medium. Montreal musicians Sarah Pagé and Patrick Graham employ a unique array of instruments (including harp, bass koto, sarangi, waterphone, hamon, Nano Garden and electronics) to evoke abstracted textures from deep within the anthropocene.
In the early depths of pandemic isolation, Pagé and Graham struck up a creative correspondence. The pair quickly realized that, not only did they both hail from the same small suburb of Montreal, but their musical journeys were also rich with uncanny coincidence. Beyond having the same childhood music teacher and attending the same schools, from primary up to the university level, both players have extensively explored Japanese classical forms and Irish folk music. They each have long histories of improvised music and share a penchant for acoustic instrumentation with electronic treatments. Considering their geographic overlap and niche musical journeys, it seemed incredible that they’d yet to collaborate, let alone meet.
PAGE VIDE
Page Vide is the collaborative project of Montréal-based experimental artists Sarah Pagé & Joni Void. A meeting of Pagé’s versatile Harp practice and explorative techniques with the cinematic production, sound-editing approach and sample based narratives of Void; Page Vide is the result of a longstanding live symbiosis between both artists.
Currently working on their first album titled 'Musique Douce pour la Fin du Monde'; Page Vide revolves around atmospheric and emotive soundscapes; hypnotic and psychedelic compositions that combine the creative techniques and song crafting methods of Pagé & Void; with each artist’s respective careers proving a devotion to sonic experimentations, multi-genre exploration & collaborative extensions (whether it’s Pagé’s history & reputation playing with Lhasa De Sela, The Barr Brothers, Land Of Kush, Esmerine and more - or Void’s accomplished solo albums released on Constellation Records and his local endeavours / events with his own platform Everyday Ago, on which Pagé frequently features).
The trio: David Gossage, Kate Bevan-Baker and Sarah Pagé have individually toured Canada and beyond in their own ensembles including The Barr Brothers, Lhasa deSela, Orealis, Esmerine, and Land of Kush, as well as performing with the likes of Hey Rosetta!, and Kid Koala.
When the three virtuosic players first combined on stage in 2015, bringing their diverse influences of classical, jazz, African, and Indian music together with a love and appreciation for Irish and Scottish Celtic music and English and Appalachian folk songs, it resulted in a unique and innovative take on what was once old.
Bùmarang’s Echo Land, the debut album of the Montreal-based Celtic trio alludes to a reflection, a return and a resolution to find answers in the past. Echo Land is an epic journey that flows over the realms of Celtic music, travelling the ages and back again. Bùmarang have shared loves: born, lost, regretted and celebrated, and brought us out of mists of uncertainty to a clarity of our place within this time. They’ve succeeded in making new what is old, and nourish our souls with their entirely modern celebration of tradition.