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Laurel HaloProlific electronic music producer Laurel Halo described her newest album Atlas as “the feeling of everywhere becoming nowhere” to NPR. That intangible feeling is conveyed across layers of jazzy instrumentation that weave in and out of songs like the piano-driven “Naked to the Light.”
Atlas’s change in sound is typical of Halo’s genre-agnostic approach, but this sort of rumination is a common thread throughout all of her work. Her debut album Quarantine — named the best release of 2012 by The Wire — built a foundation of luscious synth-pop for sparse yet vulnerable lyrics. Follow-up album Chance of Rain and 2015 double-EP In Situ, meanwhile, harnessed instrumental abstraction to create ominous collages of sound.
Halo’s third album with taste-making electronic label Hyperdub was Dust, and featured collaborators like Sled Island alum Julia Holter. In 2018, Halo further swerved in sound, drawing inspiration from scoring the Dutch documentary Possessed to produce a six-track mini-album of ambient sonic textures called Raw Silk Uncut Wood.
Released in 2023 on her own label Awe, Atlas captures Halo’s multi-faceted approach to audio art. The echoes of techno rhythm on “Late Night Drive” blend seamlessly into the orchestral arrangements of “Sick Eros,” evoking fleeting images and scenery as if viewed from a car window. Also since last year, Halo is now a faculty member of Composition and Experimental Sound Practices at The California Institute of the Arts.
Laurel Halo’s career has spanned across disciplines, genres and continents. The joyful abandon of her sonic exploration emanates from her live instrumentation and production, the poignant sounds enveloping her solitary figure.
Sarah Davachi
New music composer Sarah Davachi proves she is a master of complexity with her latest release Long Gradus: Arrangements. On the album, she explores how strings, woodwinds, brass and organ, choir and electronics can change the texture and structure of familiar compositions. The result is a drone-meets-neo-classical collection that sounds like the way one dancer would carry another.
Niloufar Shiri & Caleb Klager
Niloufar’s musical world lies at the intersection of classical Iranian music, contemporary music, and improvisation. Her focus revolves around exploring the concept of displacement in relation to familiar and distant environments. Her music closely examines textural and timbral spaces, drawing inspiration from staggered pitch relations found in the Radif, as well as bird sounds, noise, and feedback.
Caleb Klager is a producer and sound designer currently living in Toronto, Canada. Trained as a bassist at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, his close relationship with sub-octave grooves and textures demonstrates his natural ability to conjure nuanced and tessellating polyrhythms, captivating listeners from start to finish.
About Sled Island:
Sled Island is an annual five-day independent music and arts festival in Calgary, Alberta that brings together a community of music, comedy, film and art with over 30,000 attendees in multiple venues across the city. For more information, visit SledIsland.com.
Upon entering a festival venue, the passholder agrees to being photographed, filmed or recorded in that venue, and agrees to the publication, reproduction, distribution and broadcast of all photographs, video or other recordings of the passholder's voice or likeness without further notice or compensation in any publicity, advertisement or other publication carried-out by, or on behalf of, Sled Island and in perpetuity in any manner and media whatsoever, including print, broadcast or internet.
Everyone has the right to feel safe and included at Sled Island. All festival attendees must abide by Sled Island's safer spaces and inclusion policy and agree to the code of conduct, which can be found at SledIsland.com/SaferSpaces.
Sled Island acknowledges Calgary as the traditional territory of the Blackfoot and the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta, which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Ĩyãħé Nakoda First Nations, including the Chiniki, Bearspaw and Goodstoney First Nations. Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta (Districts 5 and 6).
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Central United Church, 131 7 Ave SW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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