We recently had the pleasure of attending a small portion of the Third Annual Electric Eclectics Festival near Meaford, Ontario. Described by the Globe and Mail as “Woodstock for the modern music crowd”, the festival took place over three days on the August long weekend, on the site of a working farm atop Scotch Mountain, which is generously named but nevertheless affords a stunning pastoral view of the surrounding countryside.

The first act of the day, just underway as we arrived, were Jeremy Hobbs and Nick Storring, on guitar and cello respectively, though in keeping with the whole point of the festival, these instruments were coaxed and caressed into unlocking sounds and moods beyond their design. Hobbs’ guitar work recalled some of Robert Fripp’s Soundscapes experiments, but the addition of Storring’s cello work, and the modern technologies deployed by both, made them a wholly original act and a promising start to the day.

(YouTube video)
Next up, Feuermusik, another duo. Gus Weinkauf brought tremendous stick control and more enthusiasm and body English to two drumsticks and a couple of paint cans (or something) than probably the instruments deserved, but he propelled things along with admirable energy. Jeremy Strachan playing (I think tenor) saxophone displayed the most bonafide chops of anyone we saw, and proved it by maintaining a breakneck pace throughout most of the set. While primarily in the “free” mode, there was at times uncanny synchronicity between the two players. While relentless, especially in contrast with the previous act, by the end they had made me a believer.

(YouTube video)
Now we come to the act with easily the best name of anyone on the bill. Known as The Dead Are Those Who Have Died, what we actually have is one unassuming fellow, Ryan Clark, playing prepared electric guitar. We never saw his face, as he saw fit to present only his butt to the audience. Punishing his guitar (we assume from the sounds – he was hunched over it with his back to us, preventing visual confirmation) into “channelling the ancestral sounds of nature and the dead” it sounded more to me like he was channeling Fred Frith, only without the discipline and control. A disappointment for me.

(Fred Frith video — note he FACES his audience)
The final act that we were able to stay for, AS IS, were another duo, “featuring percussion and synthesizer by Grey County-based visual artists Steve White and Alan Glicksman“. Alan is a fellow Owen Sounder, whose wife Suzanne (aka “Shalimar”) it turns out is my wife’s belly-dancing instructor. We’re a close community, what can I tell you. Closer still, Steve hails from Walters Falls – which, as he noted, you could practically throw a drumstick to from the stage. And close was a good thing, given the instrument / sculpture he had to haul to the venue. Evoking its agricultural roots and context, this fairly enormous concoction of metal plates and garage door springs gave up a surprising range of quite musical tones. Not quite “tuned percussion” but with a full broad voice all its own. Meanwhile, Alan was busy with drum kit, miscellaneous bells and whistles, and what we heard described only as a “vintage synth”, which looked and sounded suspiciously like an old VCS3 (Think Pink Floyd’s “On the Run” from Dark Side of the Moon). Google and Wikipedia were inconclusive, but that’s my theory for now… This was a terrific set.

(YouTube video)
One final note, there was a fairly cool sound installation in the farm’s silo, which involved capturing the ongoing sound of the nearby stage performances, patching that signal into some digital audio equipment inside the silo, and playing it back through a pair of speakers. What with the natural acoustics of the silo itself, the delay between the source (still audible from outside) and the captured signal, and the subtle and varying digital effects applied to the signal for playback, the experience was surprisingly engrossing.

When you move to Owen Sound from Toronto, you can be forgiven for thinking it’s going to be all country music from here on. But no. There’s a swirly psychedelic light at the end of the time tunnel, and its name is Tel Quel. Computerist Joshua Richardson and invited artists including Adam Reese, Patrick Dorfman, Graham Dorfman, and Scott Farmer, along with poi-spinners The Whirling Divas, and a most talented belly dancer named Shawna Banville, gave us a very enjoyable evening of music and movement and light.
Joshua Richardson

Adam Reese

Patrick Dorfman

Patrick Dorfman (video)

The Whirling Divas

The Whirling Divas (video)

Belly Dancer Shawna Banville