James Harley’s Wild Fruits

James Harley’s Wild Fruits was inspired by two texts; Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard and Wild Fruits by Henry David Thoreau.  The five movements all involve combining extracts from the texts read by Jim Bartruff, Theresa Carson and Anne-Marie Donovan with sounds recorded in nature and, in some cases, worked over in the studio.  It was originally conceived as an eight channel surround sound experience but the commercial release has been remixed for stereo and Dolby ATMOS.  Obviously some of the spatialization is lost and I’d be curious to hear the ATMOS mix.  As it is I’m going to write about the 48kHz/24bit stereo version which I listened to on headphones because I find that’s closer to the immersive experience than speakers.

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Spiders, vampires, curses?

This year’s offering from the Artists’ Studio of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company was Judith Weir’s The Black Spider.  One doesn’t get many opportunities to see a Weir opera, let alone one composed for young performers, so this was very welcome.  That it’s a very funny mash up of several gothic/horror tropes is a definite bonus.  Throw in a lively production with whole hearted and skilful performances and it makes for a great show.

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