“There’s a gentle balance in this song and some recent scenery I was exploring and the images and sounds came together easily, the humming repetition meeting and dispersing like elements and leaving a soft pattern. Rhythms of wind and water and light form colors and shapes and fit into the spaces made by music. This was an exercise in making ephemeral things tangible and also the feeling of floating on the ocean and they’re layered so that they blend indecipherably.” – Francesca Tallone.
Sounds record a moment, a sliver of time in the cosmos on earth. Joseph’s field recordings recall visits to other places on the globe, recalling memories and the ways that our memory mixes with dreams, it is complicated, actually. Stefan is playing an old organ here, one gifted by Bashar, a Palestinian friend who works with a moving company in the city, the organ was going to be thrown out, so Bashar came by to gift the old organ. Stefan also is playing an acoustic guitar. This recording is based on an exchange in sound and also an exchange in friendship, in experimentation and recalling stories of generations past by two sound artists who grew up on Turtle Island, but have roots in the Mediterranean.
Stefan Christoff plays music, creates media and is a community organizer. Playing piano, organ and guitar Stefan is a multifaceted musician who also works in soundscapes. He has collaborated with many musicians and has releases coming out this year with Lori Goldston and Sam Shalabi. Hosts a weekly community radio show on CKUT 90.3fm called Free City Radio. Stefan has also been deeply involved in social justice movements and campaigning against colonial capitalist systems of injustice, from Turtle Island to Palestine, but also in the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement in support of Palestinian liberation. He has worked as a cook, cleaner, home-care assistant, waiter, dishwasher, doorman, delivery person, painter, journalist, photographer and community radio coordinator. Lives in Montréal, studying history at Concordia University and has Macedonian roots.
Joseph Sannicandro is an artist and writer based in Montréal. Working with field-recordings and various recording media, his soundscapes explore the relationship between sound, positionality, and place. As a scholar, his work explores creative labor and (un)popular culture, encompassing the philosophy of technology, media theory, and institutional critique. In addition to his duo with Stefan Christoff, Joseph also records under the moniker the new objective and under his own name, as well as with the Anarchist Mountains Trio. He is co-founder of the music blog A Closer Listen, and producer of Sound Propositions, a series of audio documentaries profiling musicians and sound artists.