Now Hear This Festival – Nathaniel Sutton and Luciane Cardassi

Nathaniel Sutton and Luciane Cardassi | 7 PM | Muttart Hall.

The Program

Retro Tape Soundscape – Nathaniel Sutton

pale forms – a piano recital with Luciane Cardassi

Prelude 1 (2005) – Gabriela Ortiz

The Jack Pine (2010) – Jocelyn Morlock

From the Wind (2023): Gentle Eagle *premiere – Diana Tayler

pale forms in uncommon light (2023) *premiere – Emilie Cecilia LeBel

i. landscape of memory | ii. pale forms | iii. forest histories | iv. in uncommon light | v. shimmer still beckons

for solo piano with e-bow | written for Luciane Cardassi, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts

Hailing from the prairies region of Edmonton, Alberta Canada comes – a versatile songwriter, composer and performer. With a penchant for experimental melodies, ambient drones, and innovative sounds, Sutton weaves a captivating tapestry of musical exploration.

The Edmonton native is by no means a newcomer to the music scene. He spent several years playing in touring bands, while he honed his recording and production chops on the side. Sutton continues to create deeply personal music with high production values, which has been described as ‘sonic poetry’.

Over the past twenty years, Banff-based, Brazilian-Canadian pianist has established herself as one of her instrument’s most impressive and intriguing interpretive voices. Winner of an Açorianos prize for her debut album, “Prelúdios em Porto Alegre,” she has performed across Canada, the US, Brazil, Mexico, and the UK. Luciane is active as both a soloist and a chamber musician, and frequently explores creation at the intersection of multiple artistic disciplines.

Her string of recent solo albums on Redshift Records, as well as “brocade” by rockeys duo—her collaboration with Katelyn Clark—document her sharp curatorial sense and vast experience as a creative collaborator. The latest of said discs, “Going North” is a personal homage to her dual homelands featuring eight carefully selected works by Canadian and Brazilian composers.

Luciane holds a Doctorate in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California, San Diego, and remains an avid researcher exploring various facets of recent concert music. After a two-year Visiting Professorship at the Federal University of Bahia, in Brazil, Luciane is now back in Banff, on traditional Treaty 7 territory, where the beautiful surroundings continue to inspire her creative practice.

Retro Tape Soundscape: Explore the fusion of retro charm and experimental creativity as Nathaniel Sutton uses cassette players as instruments for crafting ambient sounds. Through a blend of nostalgic resonance and manipulation, this unconventional approach invites listeners on a journey through retro-inspired soundscapes.

pale forms: Starting with the delicate and luminous Prelude 1 by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, in which the composer pays tribute to Claude Debussy and Toru Takemitsu, tonight’s program continues with three majestic works by Canadian composers Jocelyn Morlock, Diana Tayler and Emilie LeBel. I love the connection of these 3 works with nature, as expressed by the composers, below.

The Jack Pine: Several aspects of Tom Thompson’s The Jack Pine were seminal in creating this piece. I was intrigued by the way that the tree is both delicate and majestic, almost heroic in the way that it clings to life on the side of the cliff. (Jack Pines will grow where there has been a forest fire or other destruction of previous ground cover.) The absolute stillness of the water and sky, and the endless gradations of colour within them, influenced both the stillness of the outer sections of the piece, and my experiment with variations of colours within large chords. The centre of the piece is created from a spectrum of chords, each with its own slight change of colour/timbre.

Gentle Eagle: In a nest atop an old cottonwood tree on the shores of Shushwap Lake (Skwlax te Secwepemculecw) lives a majestic bald eagle. I have spent many days looking up at the sky, watching him soar. In my lazy summer daydreaming state I imagine what he sees, where those powerful winds take him, how it feels to have his feathers rustled in the wind. This piece is a contemplation of that eagle, of the wind, the water, and the sky.

pale forms in uncommon light: When I stand in the forest, the light doesn’t initially seem to move. The trees and light are stable features of my landscape. I perceive everything as permanent, staying in the same spot. But, as I stand longer, everything changes. Forests exhibit much variation in light environments – light changing over hours, days, months, years – constantly moving, fluctuating, deviating, transforming… Little by little. This piece is for the montane ecoregion of Alberta – the many iterations of light patterns that filter through the douglas-fir, trembling aspen, engelmann spruce, and lodgepole pine.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Muttart Hall, Muttart Hall, Edmonton, Canada