And of course, it also means that SUONI PER IL POPOLO, the best music festival in the world, is right around the corner!

As usual, the festival will bring dozens of truly amazing acts to the city all through June, and as usual a whole bunch of local CST friends and allies will hit the stages at Casa del Popolo and Sala Rossa. See below for a brief roundup, along with audio and video samples. Have a look, and then head over to the Suoni site to check out the full program.
 
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NICK KUEPFER + LEE RANALDO w/ STEVE SHELLEY
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June 6 • Sala Rossa • $17/20 • Info/tickets
 
This year Suoni will host two appearances of Nick Kuepfer, Montreal weirdo genius and master sculptor of rickety, immersive soundscapes built up from guitars and tape machines and piles of scavenged ephemera.

On June 6 he’ll open for Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley. You know those guys, right? They were in some bands? Anyways, this Ranaldo character is going to play some acoustic stuff of his own, accompanied by Mr. Shelley; should be nice.
 
MP3 – NICK KUEPFER: “Corpse in the Wildflowers” (from Avestruz)
MP3 – NICK KUEPFER: “Winter 2″ (Soundcloud)
 

 
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OSO BLANCO (COLIN STETSON, NATE WOOLEY, C.S. YEH, & RYAN SAWYER) + HRAÏR HRATCHIAN
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June 9 • Casa del Popolo • $10/12 • Info/Tickets
 
His stunning New History Warfare trilogy concluded with the April 30 release of To See More Light, mind-bending saxophone juggernaut Colin Stetson will lend his formidable lungs to Oso Blanco, alongside three similarly virtuosic players on trumpet, drums and violin.

Opening will be Hraïr Hratchian – multidisciplinary artist and performer, past Jerusalem In My Heart collaborator – leading a nine-musician ensemble in a performance of “Bardézoum vartér patsvadz” a 100-year old Armenian folk piece by composer Krikor Dalian.
 
MP3 – COLIN STETSON: “High Above A Grey Green Sea”
 

 
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PACHA + NOUVEAU ZODIAQUE + JOSHUA ABRAMS’ NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY
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June 11 • Sala Rossa • $10/12 • Info/Tickets
 
Pierre-Guy Blanchard spent years studying various percussion techniques and compositional modes of Turkish, Balkan and Middle Eastern musics. His project, Pacha, is a thrilling fusion of intense propulsive rhythms and gloriously fried synth lines. Affaires Étrangères, Pacha’s debut, was released last year as part of Musique Fragile Vol. 3, and its live iteration is an explosive thing: heady and precise, while guaranteed to get sweaty.

Nouveau Zodiaque is a shifting group of musicians rallied by Les Momies de Palerme’s Xarah Dion, pulling on various threads of folk and world musics to form a gorgeous, cohesive and strangely danceable synthesis.

Joshua Abrams – Chicago native, prolific musical experimentalist, co-founder of Town & Country and Sticks & Stones (with Matana Roberts) – has of late been leading ensembles on a unique trajectory of trance-like, slightly psychedelic exploration, pulling from North and West African traditions, minimalism and out jazz. Check out last year’s totally killer Represencing to get an idea.

 
MP3 – PACHA: “L’Aeroport de Charlo”
MP3 – LES MOMIES DE PALERME: “Solis”
MP3 – JOSHUA ABRAMS & CO.: Live Dublab session
 

 
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SALTLAND + ERIC CHENAUX & RADWAN GHAZI MOUMNEH + WORMHOLES
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June 14 • Sala Rossa • $11/13 • Info/tickets
 

I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us, the debut album from Rebecca Foon’s Saltland project – “captivating”, “modern and mesmerizing”, “alluring and intoxicating” – was released this week. For this official release show Foon will join her compositions for voice and cello to ornate, buoyant arrangements for electronics, percussion and contrebass courtesy of Jamie Thompson and Aaron Lumley, and it will be breathtaking.

Eminent guitar handler and heart-rending balladeer Eric Chenaux will join forces with sound engineer, boxer, all-around CST go-to guy and Jerusalem In My Heart musical mastermind Radwan Moumneh for a performance certain to be as affecting and beautiful as it is indescribably abstract.

Wormholes is an audio-visual project of Beirut-based improvisational musicians Mazen Kerbaj and Sharif Sehnaoui. Solo guitar manipulations meet light tables projections with live drawing. We’re told by those in the know that this rare performance is unmissable.
 
MP3 – SALTLAND: “Treehouse Schemes”
MP3 – JERUSALEM IN MY HEART: “Yudaghdegh…”
MP3 – ERIC CHENAUX: “Amazing Backgrounds”
 

 
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ELFIN SADDLE IN MUSIC TEMPLE + HANGEDUP + NICK KUEPFER
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June 18 • Sala Rossa • $12/14 • Info/tickets
 
Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie have for years been crafting small DIY dystopias and rich, sparkling soundworlds with quiet reverence and humble anger. As Elfin Saddle they’ve produced three albums of urgent, ramshackle folk (the most recent, Devastates, released last year), a stop-motion film staged over several months in their backyard, and most recently “Music Temple”: a multimedia installation at Montreal’s MAI gallery involving automated musical instruments, film projections and live performance. An abridged version of the “Music Temple” installation will be brought to this one-of-a-kind performance.

The mighty viola and percussion duo of Hangedup is rolling once again. Since ending a long hiatus in 2010, they’ve played a handfull of shows in Montreal, kicked our asses around Europe as part of our 15th anniversary celebrations, and released Transit of Venus, an epic, towering collaborative LP with minimalist legend Tony Conrad. Gen Heistek and Eric Craven deliver a clattering, cavernous racket with a soft, graceful touch.

Nick Kuepfer, once again, is our hero (see above).
 
MP3 – HANGEDUP & TONY CONRAD: “Principles”
MP3 – HANGEDUP: “Alarm”
MP3 – ELFIN SADDLE: “The Changing Wind”
 

 
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Of course there are a ton of other highlights: our fearless leader Don taking part in a panel discussion called “Beneath the Surfaces (Discussion on audio formats)”, shows with Maica Mia, Avec Le Soleil Sortant de sa Bouche + Oneida & Rhys Chatham, Jen Reimer & Max Stein + Gambletron, Grouper, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma + Le Révélateur, Kevin Drumm, Ratchet Orchestra, and on and on… Really, there’s just so much good stuff. Liberate your ears.

The full calendar, with links to buy tickets online, is right here; tickets are also available in the usual shops.
 

I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us shines a long-overdue light on Rebecca’s talents as a songwriter and as an architect of sonic timbres and textures wrought from the cello as primary sound source. Rebecca has been a fixture of Montreal’s music community for many years, a generous and collaborative player, and an important part of Constellation’s roster by way of her membership in Esmerine and Silver Mt Zion. We couldn’t be happier to present this first collection of Saltland songs as we round out our Spring 2013 crop of new releases. The full run-down on the album, including ordering info, is available here.
 

I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us is available for pre-order right here. See below for Saltland’s upcoming tour dates, and if you haven’t yet, watch the video for “Unholy” (premiered a few weeks ago by Ad Hoc).
 

 

 
As we approach the May 14 release date for I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us, the debut release from Rebecca Foon’s Saltland project, the group has announced several dates in early May, when they’ll hit Brooklyn, Montreal, Toronto, Guelph and London, Ontario.

For appearances in Toronto and Brooklyn (supporting Moonface) Rebecca will perform solo, treating audiences to more stripped down versions of songs from the album, while for others they’ll receive the full band treatment, when she’ll be joined by Jamie Thompson on percussion/electronics and Aaron Lumley on bass.

See below for dates and watch the video for album cut “Unholy”, and get the full run-down on the album here.

See dates, and listen to ALLELUJAH! DON’T BEND! ASCEND! opener “Mladic”, below:
 

 

See below for dates, and stream Other Truths, their latest full-length, while you’re at it.
 

 

See below for dates, and stream Other Truths, their latest full-length, while you’re at it.
 

 

Sarah will play a number of live dates in the United States, Canada and Europe over the summer. Check our tours page for the full schedule.
 

 
Sarah Neufeld is a violinist and composer based in Montréal, Canada. Best known as a member of Arcade Fire, she is also a founding member of the acclaimed contemporary instrumental ensemble Bell Orchestre and has performed and recorded with many other groups, including The Luyas, Esmerine and Little Scream.

Neufeld began developing pieces for solo violin in a more formal and focused sense in 2011, though she has made improvisation and solo composition part of her process and practice since first picking up the instrument at a young age. Neufeld counts Bela Bartok, Steve Reich, Iva Bittova and Arthur Russell among the formative influences for her solo work, in tandem with an ear for the textures and sensibilities of contemporary electro-acoustic, avant-folk and indie rock music.

Neufeld’s debut solo album Hero Brother indeed channels all of the above, flowing through shifting atmospheres and oscillating between restrained, stately ambience, emotive études, and raw kinetic energy. Small touches of wordless vocalisation, harmonium and piano supplant the violin in a few places. The album was recorded in Berlin by pianist and producer Nils Frahm, with Neufeld’s performances captured in a number of locations with site-specific acoustics, including an abandoned geodesic dome, an underground parking garage, and the legendary Studio P4 orchestral recording hall at the broadcast complex of the former GDR. Hero Brother will be released on Constellation Records in August 2013.

Sarah has recently premiered her solo music at BAM (Brooklyn), the WSO New Music Festival (Winnipeg) and Wavelength Festival (Toronto), of which Exclaim magazine wrote “the highlight of the night was most certainly Sarah Neufeld, whose compositions range from Reichian to folksy without skipping a beat; she uses violin squeals, growls, scrapes and slides to express varying emotions and stomps the stage beneath her for percussion.”

Neufeld will be touring as a soloist extensively throughout 2013-2014, alongside her ongoing commitments with Arcade Fire.

Click here for more info.