It’s no secret that Toronto is residence to individuals from many various backgrounds, nationalities, and ethnicities — and their musical traditions. That easy reality has led to many groundbreaking musical collaborations.
Over the past two years, Hyperlink Music Lab’s Experimental Hyperlink Collection has basically created new genres of music by pairing musicians from the Persian diaspora with members of Toronto’s numerous and wonderful music scene, together with pianist Chris Pruden, bassist Scott Peterson, and cellist George Crotty. The outcomes have been a string of progressive recordings and reside performances that veer from fusion to digital music and again.
They’re holding a Label Launch Occasion to have a good time the 5 (and shortly to be six) releases which have come out up to now, and future plans that embody a number of extra, on Might 10.
Hyperlink Music Lab founder Moudy (Mahmood) Schricker
“I began with working with Small World Music, with Alan Davis,” remembers Hyperlink Music Lab founder Moudy Schricker. He’s additionally a musician and producer. “There was a giant motion of Iranian classical music.”
From its beginnings as a style you’d hear at strictly Persian group occasions, the recognition of Persian music and rising viewers within the metropolis has seen it fill Toronto’s main live performance halls, together with the George Weston Recital Corridor, and Roy Thomson Corridor.
“As a result of I work with them, I assumed there was a very good potential,” he says. After 5 years or so of working with Small World, he needed to department out. “I assumed I ought to have my very own firm.”
It’s partly in response to that rising viewers. “The panorama has modified massively,” he says, noting the rising variety of arts associated corporations with Persian roots.
By the top of the pandemic, he’d selected a brand new path for the corporate and the music it produced. “I began shifting from Iranian classical music to experimental music” he says. “We sort of make our personal style that doesn’t exist in Toronto.”
It takes the classical Persian traditions, and provides a broader and fashionable perspective, together with components of jazz/modern and digital music.
“Whereas I really like my tradition, I really like my nation, on the identical time, I reside in Canada. It opens the door to have interaction with different issues which can be occurring within the metropolis.”
It’s additionally about partaking with all kinds of various artists. “It opens the door for a lot of different artists,” he notes. He’s approached organizations like The Music Gallery and Wavelength, identified for their very own adventurous strategy to music programming. “I all the time regarded as much as organizations like Music Gallery,” he provides. “They do actually ahead considering stuff. I used to be additionally a fan of that music.”
The music turns into part of dwelling within the metropolis.
“It actually makes me really feel nearer to the place I reside, which is Toronto.”
Hyperlink Music Lab: Releases
Thus far, Hyperlink Music Lab has launched 4 full-length albums, and one EP. One other is on the best way, and all can be found on Bandcamp, together with most different streaming choices;
- Trio Andalibi: Dastgâmachine — Tapestry (EP with Mahmood Schricker, Caleb Klager and Neonlichter recorded November 2024) * accessible in vinyl & digital obtain
- Hamid Motebassem and George Crotty Trio — Nishabourak (Album with Hamid Motebassem, George Crotty, Jonathan Chapman and Dhaivat Jani recorded Might 2024)
- Niloufar Shiri and Caleb Klager — Experimental Hyperlink 6 (Album with Niloufar Shiri and Caleb Klager recorded February 2024)
- Trio Andalibi — Improvisations from the Doyen of Kurdish Nay (Album with Shaho Andalibi, Chris Pruden, Scott Peterson recorded June 2023)
- Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazki and Matti Pulkki — Experimental Hyperlink 5 (Album with Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, Matti Pulkki recorded Might 2023)
Success comes from choosing the proper musicians to work collectively.
Iranian multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, and music trainer Shaho Andalibi has carried out on a number of events in Toronto. He’s a specialist in Kurdish music, which he performs on a nay, an finish blown flute historically product of reed. Schricker calls his reside live performance with Toronto-based bassist Scott Peterson and pianist Chris Pruden, as recorded on the album, one of many highlights of Hyperlink’s efforts up to now.
“That’s a very good instance of what I’ve tried to do in making this music modern,” Moudy says. “The end result of that music may be very attention-grabbing. Once they’re all collectively, taking part in collectively, you’ll be able to hear components of every musician being themselves,” he provides. “They’re feeding off one another’s musicality.”
Creating the progressive ensembles typically entails a little bit of persuasion. “Once I program this stuff, they don’t know one another,” he explains. “The way in which I pitch it’s, why don’t you convey your B-side?”
He works with the musicians to search out out what their very own aspirations are, the weather they wished they’d extra time to discover. If there’s a particular thought, he appears to be like for a method to fulfill it. “That’s how the method works,” he says. “It’s an advanced formulation,” he acknowledges. “All people has had a very good expertise.”
Label Launch Occasion: Might 10 (Cafeteria)
The Occasion includes a live performance with among the musicians who carry out on the releases: Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi (electronics), Niloufar Shiri (kamancheh), Matti Pulkki (accordion), Scott Peterson (upright bass), Caleb Klager (reside PA) and Persian Alchemy that includes Neda Mohamadpour (vocals), Isaiah Farahbakhsh (cello) and Mehdi Rostami (setar).
Persian Alchemy may even carry out picks of their forthcoming album on the occasion.
DJs Neonlicheter and Mahan will bookend the present with solo performances and collaborations and Hamid Malek on projection mapping.
- Discover extra particulars and tickets to the Might 10 Occasion [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.