FYEAR

FYEAR is the Montréal-based nonet led by composer Jason Sharp (electronics, bass saxophone) and poet/writer Kaie Kellough (texts, voice), joined by poet/writer Tawhida Tanya Evanson (voice), musicians Jesse Zubot (violin), Joshua Zubot (violin), Joe Grass (pedal steel), Stefan Schneider (drums), Tommy Crane (drums), and artist/designer Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (video performance and visual design).

Fusing spoken word voices with genre-bending longform electro-acoustic compositions, FYEAR incorporates drone, out-jazz, post-classical, ambient metal, avant-rock and electronic music in an integrated work the opposite of collage or pastiche: the FYEAR ensemble conveys a unique but wholly unified sound/aesthetic while traversing adventurous and variegated stylistic terrain.

FYEAR is the culmination of several years of collaboration, development, workshops, commissions and performances in smaller configurations by Sharp and Kellough. FYEAR melds improvisation and composition, traditional notation and graphic scoring, electronic and acoustic instrumentation, lucid recitation and abstract vocalization—balancing intensive structure with an expansive sense of exploration.

Propelled by spoken texts that manifest in a variety of ways, always deeply entwined with the musical compositions, FYEAR channels the urgency of our troubled and conflicted moment, conducting collective anxieties, emotions and critiques in waves of words and sound. Kellough’s text, written for two voices, invokes the overstimulation and atomization of info/culture wars, politics as catchphrase, problematizing and re-poetizing our constructed and manipulated conceptual realities, questioning how we are being cast into the future: Who does it belong to? How will it be shared? How do we project our relationship to the future given the contested challenges of climate change, global migration, wealth gaps, identity/affinity groups, our seemingly irreconcilable histories and forward visions for the world we wish to inhabit? FYEAR draws us into alternately contemplative, disquieted, and visceral readings of our struggles, fictions, shackles, and freedoms.

The self-titled debut album-length recording by FYEAR (Constellation, 2024) documents its signature multi-movement work, first premiered during the pandemic as a commissioned audio/visual streaming performance by Jazz Ahead! (Bremen, Germany) in 2021. FYEAR performed for the first time in front of a live festival audience at SEND+RECEIVE (Winnipeg, Canada) in 2022 and to a hometown audience at Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival (Montréal, Canada) later that year. The ensemble played Moers Festival (Moers, Germany) in 2023 and recorded at the Hotel2Tango studio in Montréal immediately thereafter with producer/engineer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Matana Roberts, Sarah Davachi, Big|Brave).

Live Dates 

Artist Photos

For high-resolution downloads, click here

Contacts & Links

FYEAR website

Booking: 
mgmt [at] fyear [dot] ca 

Press enquiries UK:
Lauren Barley at Rarely Unable

Press enquiries EU:
Ed Benndorf at Dense Promotion