Growlers Choir

Victo 40th Anniversary Super Sale. This concert recording is something of a miracle. Nothing suggested that this album or even the performance it documents—pro- duced in extremis, in the middle of a global pandemic, with ever-chan- ging public health orders—would see the light of day. A few weeks prior to the event, no-one knew if the concert would happen, nor did I know what we would be performing! 

Really. Almost half of the program was composed four weeks before the show. From the outset, I knew that the set list would include the epic pieces Hate.Machine and The Dayking, the latter with the remarkable participation of lyricist/poet Fortner Anderson. But what about the rest of the program? I used this opportunity as an inspiration booster, and I decided to combine these compositions with some com-provisation from the Growlers. And this com-provisation would be backed by an electronic track made with electric guitar recordings. 

I was already eager to explore the electric guitar as a sonic—rather than melodic—instrument. So I threw myself headlong into this project, galvanized by inspira- tion...and an imminent deadline.
The idea was to tune in to the musical tastes of FIMAV regulars, as if the Growlers Choir were doing a spiritual collaboration with
the audience. The concept also involved initiating metal music experts to the typical improvisation found in Musique Actuelle, which is not an easy task! The result is a blend of metal music, noisy throat singing-like vocal improvisation, noise music, drone music, electroacoustic music, etc.  Happy listening!