Suoni Festival: Harris Newman & Loren Connors at Sala

Like all other experiences I’ve had attending the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival, there is a certain David Lynch-esque feeling that washes over me during a performance and the spirit of free music becomes tangible and omniscient. This evening’s performance did not fall short of capturing (and releasing) that same feeling.

The house was set up in the round and the players were situated on the floor directly in front of the audience, which made for a very intimate performance. Loren Connors entered and took no time getting into his material. I’m not familiar with Connors’ history (he has recorded under various names such as Guitar Roberts, Loren Mattei, Loren MazzaCane Connors and other variations) but learning that he had played with the reclusive Jandek in the past made me realize that not only is his playing style unique, but his spirit as well.

The heavy ambiance that Connors and his fender strat/ twin amp created combined rattling vacuum tubes, seriously deep reverb and ultra-pure overtones. In his first composition/ improvisation he would switch between electronic droning (generated from a lovely reverb and wah effects pedal) and clean, subtle notation. A truly beautiful, enduring and haunting composition.

The real pleasure I got from this performance was that the amp levels were quiet enough that you could still hear the strings being plucked and stroked on the guitar itself. Connors had the audience in a trance; eyes closed, heads nodded to the side, and with every creak of the floor or beer bottle clinking, we would dart our eyes in the direction of the noise, as if a garbage truck was passing through the room. The music seemed to recall the sound of a zen monastery with its singing bowls, bells and low resonating gongs. Lorne ended his set by simply standing up while his guitar was still ringing out and unplugging the cable from his amp, abruptly muting the sound and shaking us all out of our meditation.

Harris Newman approached the stage shortly after, flipped the standby switch on his fender princeton (armed with a space echo unit) tuned up the acoustic guitar loaned to him from his uncle (it’s still officially “on loan” but Harris has declared squatters rights on the guitar and will be holding on to it indefinitely) and settled in comfortably for his set.

He started off with a few guitar tunes including a couple Triple Burner covers (Newman’s side project with GY!BE’s Bruce Cawdron). One of the songs was introduced as “a song about borrowing” and another about “taking it slow and steady” which ironically did just the opposite. Newman has an ability to create such complexity in the rhtyhms of his guitar playing that you are left a little slack jawed as your mind tries to keep up with the patterns that his fingers are playing – taking it fast and crazy (to offer the antithesis of what the song was described as).

The set ended with a lapsteel performance of a couple songs, including Early Onset Tourette’s from his Glasvocht mini-CD (available in Distroboto machines in Montreal). Here’s a video sample of that tune. I’ll leave it to your ears to get the jist of what I am trying to write here…