Tag: Live Music

Zaac Pick presents: Passages Unplugged — a virtual performance

Presenting ‘Passages, Unplugged’ — a virtual performance of my latest album ‘Passages’, from front to back, accompanied sparsely by a few dear friends on backing vocals, piano, cello, and violin. Recorded in an empty and soon-to-be-demolished church hall in Vancouver, BC, this is the first (and likely only) time this album will be performed performed live in full.

I’ll be hanging out on the chat afterwards to say hello, answer questions, trade music recommendations or favorite recipes, etc. as well.

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Based in Vancouver, BC singer-songwriter Zaac Pick’s brand of confessional folk-pop has slowly been earning acclaim since 2010, with a string of EPs and an LP having garnered him a handful of regional songwriting awards, nominations, CBC and college radio play, and opening slots for The Civil Wars, Noah Gundersen, and Bahamas. Numerous songs have also been featured on major network television shows.

Matt Stern at OUTstages After Dark

Raucous cabaret numbers. Fabulous performance art. High camp. Heartfelt music. This weekend, we’re back at the theatre bringing OUTstages After Dark | Cabaret Livestream Series to your screens. Join us at 8pm on Facebook and Instagram as we go live from the stage at The Metro Studio.

Friday night is singer/songwriter Matt Stern with an intimate solo set, performing an all-request livestream. Matt Stern is known for infectious melodies, uplifting energy, and an ability to inspire a sense of community in a diverse crowd. Published for Precious and Sacred, a book dedicated to Indigenous children, and featured twice on Queerty.com, Matt performs in Japanese, French, English and Spanish and has been featured in Exclaim!, Italy’s Periodico Daily and on Let’s Go There (Channel Q) in Los Angeles. His new album, Take It or Leave It, was released in January 2020 on all platforms and its first music video, Full Moon, was screened at the Victoria Film Festival in February. That same week, the first single Don’t Tell Me was syndicated on CBC and picked up by shows across the country while French singles Dans mes rêves and Droit devant were broadcast on Radio-Canada. A recent feature in Addicted Magazine characterized Matt’s new album as “beautiful music that makes you feel seen and safe.”

couchwalker on film by Jenny Banai

“couchwalker on film” is a short film experiment, imagined and created by Jenny Banai; a visual representation of her sophomore album “couchwalker”.

“couchwalker on film” premieres Monday, December 14 on Audiofemme. Read full conversation Jenny Banai had with them about the story behind the film here – https://www.audiofemme.com/jenny-bana…

Inspired, in part, and due to the limited ways live music can be shared in our current world environment, Banai envisioned a multi-medium digital concept performance to clarify “couchwalker” on another level, so as to invite viewers in as close as one can to the music and to her particular creative character.

Starring Banai, the film features long single-shot segments in a warehouse fashioned to look like a living room set, with a couch—and her interactions with said couch—as the centrepiece. She is accompanied by two dancers, who appear throughout the film and represent the emotional pulls within her humanity as she sorts through her convictions and feelings regarding relationship choices and her faith.

Pulling on her novice dance and theatre background, and audio editing skills, the creation of “couchwalker on film” both challenged and unveiled Banai’s abilities. She first edited her album down to twenty minutes of audio; a mix of full album production, lo-fi live takes and voice memos, to create an audio narrative. She then brought on film director, Matej Balaz of Colla Films and choreographers and dancers, Joanna Anderson and Kezia Rosen, as her collaborating partners on the project.

Over weeks of meetings, a handful of rehearsals and two postponements, couchwalker on film became the intricate and nuanced piece that it is. Expressing the wrestling match between the conscious and subconscious, reason and intuition, convictions and feelings, Banai invites the viewer into a world where moving through various emotions is both an invitation and a necessity, and how we move through them is the choice we are gifted with.

“The [Hebrew] word, the word timshel—’Thou mayest’—that gives choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open”
– Lee (Character in John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden”).

Credits:

Concept and creation by Jenny Banai and her collabs: Matej Balaz, Joanna Noelle, and Kezia Rosen
Directed by Jenny Banai and Matej Balaz
Produced by Colla Films
Cinematography: Nate J Slaco
Editing: Daša Netíková and Matej Balaz
Choreography: Joanna Anderson and Kezia Rosen
Costume Design: Jenny Banai, Joanna Anderson and Kezia Rosen
Artistic Direction: Camille Candia
Music: Jenny Banai
Live Take Edits: Scott Currie
Production Assistant: Michal Slako

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
We thank Creative BC for their Showcase grant helping us out during the strangest of times for artists (and all people of course!).

website: https://jennybanai.com
spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3dUsj…
instagram: https://instagram.com/jennybanai
facebook: https://facebook.com/jenny.banai
bandcamp: https://jennybanai.bandcamp.com
twitter: https://twitter.com/BanaiJenny
soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jennybanai

Lozen: Goal Digger (Album Release) Live Show

A Facebook Live stream from “Temple of Lozen” performing her Goal Digger album in it’s entirety. Listeners will be offered a hybrid musical experience blending both acoustic, unplugged, and electronic versions of the songs. Lozen will also be sharing in depth backstories behind the making of the record, followed by a Q&A period and a handcrafted Lozen Mandala Pendant Necklace giveaway.