Thin Edge New Music Collective brought the Canadian Music Centre to life for a one-night-only performance of Reverb II. Six works performed by six talented musicians featured Toronto and World Premieres alike. With new and impressive ways of using the instruments to create these intricate works, Reverb II certainly left me thinking about the seemingly boundless possibilities presented by contemporary orchestral music.

Reverb II included the following pieces: “Halcyon” by Jocelyn Morlock (which was performed in memoriam of the composer), “31 Ways of Looking at a Vending Machine” by Devon Osamu Tipp (World Premiere), “Résistance-Résilience” by Romain Camiolo (Toronto Premiere), “7am Tehran Time Zone” by Nasir Khorassani, “Metamold” by Bekah Simms, and “Coaster Club” by Luke Nickel (World Premiere). While each piece has unique themes and motives, what unties them all is their haunting, dissonant chords; a nod, I feel, to the difficult times in which we live. I was fascinated how in each piece there was some way in which an instrument, or several, are asked to be performed in unconventional ways to create the music: overblowing reed instruments to get a raspy sound, using a bow along the edges of cymbals or xylophones, plucking the strings of the piano. At times, the pianist was actually playing both the piano and synthesizer at the same time!

Two stand out pieces for me are “7am Tehran Time Zone” and “Coaster Club.” Opening the second half of the programme, “7am Tehran Time Zone” juxtaposes the comforting, domestic sounds of tea being served with the harsh, sudden bursts of noise from the outside world. Six volunteers from the audience were pouring their tea, adding sugar, and vigorously stirring to create the domestic element of the piece centre stage. All around them, the musicians completed the ambiance and audience members were allowed to walk through and experience the piece from every angle possible. “Coaster Club” has conceived by doing just that: creating a club dedicated to a love of roller coasters. This piece is directly based on the Leviathan coaster at Canada’s Wonderland, and features psychedelic visuals to accompany the audience’s ride on the coaster. You actually can still join the Coaster Club! There’s information on TENMC’s website. Both of these pieces create fascinating atmospheres in which we can get totally lost as an audience member.

Thankfully, this beautiful performance was filmed and the link to the recorded livestream is available on their website. You’ll definitely want to keep an eye out on what TENMC does next! Visit: https://www.thinedgenewmusiccollective.com/home