September was a month filled with thought-provoking and ethereal music performed, composed, recorded, and mastered by our talented community.Â
Rainy Season – Plum RainÂ
 is the first album by the new group . The group is made up of Benjamin Sigerson (BMus’23) on piano, Tony Wang (BMus’23) on drums, and Honoka Shoji (BMus’23) on harp, and was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Antoine Gallois (BCom’19, current MMus) in Schulich’s Tanna Schulich Hall. The album is a collection of mostly free improvisations, in part inspired by classical East-Asian poets such as Basho, Nung-Un, and Wang Wei. As a group of Asian-Canadian musicians, the members of Plum Rain wanted to use poetic pieces from places of their heritage and interpret them in a musical, and more modern Canadian context.Â
Unearth - New HermitageÂ
's 5th album  was recorded on a cold December day in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On this record, they explore the process of improvising a series of shorter compositions while being true to their practice of moving patiently through discovered material. The album includes Schulich alum India Gailey (MMus’19) on cello, and Ellen Gibling (BMus’09) on harp, among others. Unearth follows a dream-like logic, superimposing soft timbral impressions and tangled melodic evasions, as though interpreting a half-erased chalk portrait of spiritual free jazz.Â
Revelations EP - The Plastic Waste Band Â
 is the newest album by environmentally inspired psychedelic jazz band . The band includes Chris Edmondson (BMus’17, MMus’19) on alto saxophone, Claire Devlin (BMus’16, MMus’20) on tenor saxophone, Jean-Michel Leblanc on guitar, Ethan Cohn (BMus’17) on bass and John Buck (BMus’18) on drums. The album is produced by alum Ethan Cohn (BMus’17) and recorded by Alex Bohn (MMus’20) and Nigel Ali-Digweed (MMus’20). This music came together as a result of a close collaborative effort to build something that would reach people and inspire them to listen. All proceeds will be donated to Chez Doris, a Montreal-based shelter for women in difficulty.Â
Rimouski Sunset – Jean-Michel Pilc Â
Ěýľ±˛őĚý±Ę°ů´Ç´Ú.Ěý's newest single released on Canada’s premiere jazz label Justin Time Records. It will be the first of five singles to be released over the next several months, culminating in the release of an EP in March 2021. The single is a serene, meditative track and was improvised while looking at a beautiful image.Â
That’s all for our September Release Radar! And don’t forget – if you’re part of the Schulich community and are looking forward to an October or November release, let us know to be featured in next edition's Release Radar! Email us at publicity.music [at] mcgill.ca.
Read past Release Radars:
