Stir ’Splainer: 4 artists performing at Vancouver New Music’s 50th-anniversary party

Matthew Ariaratnam, Andromeda Monk, Sapphire Haze, and Anju Singh celebrate the organization’s history of sound innovation

By Emily Lyth

Matthew Ariaratnam. Photo by by Jack Perkins

Vancouver New Music presents All Yesterday’s Parties at VIVO Media Arts Centre on November 23 at 7:30 pm

THE 2023-24 SEASON marked Vancouver New Music’s 50th anniversary of fostering innovative sound art in the city. Back in 1973, a group of musicians, radio producers, and university faculty came together to start a platform for commissioning and presenting contemporary music, and over the coming decades, the collaboration proved invaluable to the enrichment of local music.

Vancouver New Music is celebrating its history and this important milestone with All Yesterday’s Parties, a free open house set to take over VIVO Media Arts Centre on November 23. Guests will be treated to performances by four artists: Matthew Ariaratnam, Andromeda Monk, Sapphire Haze, and Anju Singh.

Here’s just a bit of background on each of the performers and how their recent projects encompass Vancouver New Music’s commitment to musical exploration.

#1

Matthew Ariaratnam

Interdisciplinary sound artist and guitarist Ariaratnam specializes in composing both chamber music and what he calls dumbpop, a style that distills all his expertise into one-minute tracks with matter-of-fact lyricism and pop-rock instrumentals. Take the song “Doomscrolling” for example, off his 2021 release Take Good Care, which opens with the melancholically crooned line: “What the fuck am I doing with my time?” If that doesn’t sum up the modern-day social-media experience, we’re not sure what does.

Andromeda Monk.

#2

Andromeda Monk

Monk is a composer and improviser who creates music using woodwinds and electronics (namely the no-input mixing board, a new experimental instrument capable of creating gently chaotic noise waves). Her 2022 album Image was made using the board; it lends tracks like “Dome” an otherworldly, expansive feel, conjuring up vast sonic landscapes that are fit for an apocalyptic film.

Anju Singh

#3

Anju Singh

Working across compositions, multiple instruments, noise art, and media, Singh focuses on textural elements in order to deconstruct and reanimate sound. Her recent work “HEAT”, commissioned by the UNIT/PITT Gallery, represents the sun’s potential for violent destruction by incorporating cassette tapes that were melted and damaged by heat, sunlight, and continuous wear.

Sapphire Haze. Photo by Jan Gates

#4

Sapphire Haze

Duo Sapphire Haze is violinist Cindy Kao and electronic artist Aysha Dulong, who play off each other’s expertises to blend acoustic strings with synthesized sounds. Listeners can pick up on the nuances of that hybridization in the pair’s climate-inspired composition Asphyxiation, which emphasizes the importance of balance in both music and nature. The first half of the piece offers a trance-like stillness with ethereal notes, while the second half accelerates in intensity, incorporating frantic sounds. 

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