Music

There never was a plan.

Andrew MacKelvie

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This album is material from two different events hosted by suddenlyLISTEN in the last year. Side A is a concert that I did in September, 2019, at the Bust Stop Theatre where I was the opening act for Erwan Keravec and Hamid Drake's Urban Pipes. It is two improvised solo pieces titled Part 1 Part 2. I had just moved back to Nova Scotia so this felt
This album is material from two different events hosted by suddenlyLISTEN in the last year. Side A is a concert that I did in September, 2019, at the Bust Stop Theatre where I was the opening act for Erwan Keravec and Hamid Drake's Urban Pipes. It is two improvised solo pieces titled Part 1 Part 2. I had just moved back to Nova Scotia so this felt like a special show for me, I had been practicing a lot in Montreal and was feeling good, so I brought Dario along to record the show.

Side B is a piece that was commissioned by suddenlyLISTEN for their COVIDeo series. It is called There never was a plan. Despite the title this is one of the few solo pieces I have recorded that does have a plan. It is built around two max/msp patches that I created and travels through 3 distinct zones of improvisation. in regards to the patches, one is a looping patch that only repeats the loop after a randomly selected interval of either 1-3 seconds, which is the marimba you hear. I wanted it to seems like the marimbas have a pattern, but there isn't one, a theme I've been exploring a lot lately, the illusion of pattern, the illusion of stability. The second patch follows this thread, it is a large interval delay that is set to arbitrary amounts of time, enough time that I can't set up any kind of pattern with any kind of reliability.

I decided to name the whole piece There never was a plan. in light of recent global events, local events, and my own history. When I recorded the A side I was starting another degree at University, when I recorded the B side I was in my parents garage laying low durning the pandemic. Everything I had planned was cancelled, quickly. And that was the case for everyone around the world. Around this same time a gunman killed nearly 20 people in the province where I live. For me this piece, this album, is a meditation on chaos and our desire to find order in it.

Special thanks to Norm Adams and everyone at suddenlyLISTEN for their continued support. When Norm took an interest in my playing it opened a lot of doors for me and I am very thankful that he came to see Anteater play in the basement of the Atlantica Hotel in 201?.

Check out the video version of There never was a plan. here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuGDfbjFdAM
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  1. 1
    Part 1 20:47
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  2. 2
    Part 2 6:44
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  3. 3
    There never was a plan. 11:23
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Unearth

New Hermitage

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New Hermitage's 5th album, Unearth was recorded on a cold December day in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On this record we explore the process of improvising a series of shorter compositions while being true to our practice of moving patiently through discovered material.
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  1. 1
    Boiling Off, Collecting Vapours 4:32
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  2. 2
    Light Through the Rubble 2:01
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  3. 3
    Wind Whistles 1:09
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  4. 4
    Moss | Rust 6:57
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  5. 5
    Skeletons 1:12
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  6. 6
    Pine Bottle Skylight 3:33
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  7. 7
    Signal Scan 1:43
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  8. 8
    Patient Sprout 1:18
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  9. 9
    Stalkers 2:43
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  10. 10
    Desertification 4:52
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  11. 11
    In Amber 5:11
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Haxan: New Hermitage soundtrack

New Hermitage

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In the unofficial Halloween tradition of the Halifax improvised music community, New Hermitage would like to present their soundtrack for the 1922 Swedish horror documentary, Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages. This recording was improvised in front of a live audience at the beautiful Al Whittle Theatre on Halloween night, 2020. Originally a
In the unofficial Halloween tradition of the Halifax improvised music community, New Hermitage would like to present their soundtrack for the 1922 Swedish horror documentary, Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages. This recording was improvised in front of a live audience at the beautiful Al Whittle Theatre on Halloween night, 2020. Originally a documentary told in seven parts, the New Hermitage cut is edited for time and consists of parts one, two, four, and six.

Special thank you to Kim Barlow and Sarah McInnis from Music in Communities for producing the show.

About the film:

"Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary silent film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages and early modern era suffered from the same ills as psychiatric patients diagnosed with hysteria in the film's own time. Far from a dry dissertation on the topic, the film itself is a witches’ brew of the scary, the gross, and the darkly humorous. Christensen’s mix-and-match approach to genre anticipates gothic horror, documentary re-creation, and the essay film, making for an experience unlike anything else in the history of cinema." - Criterion Collection. (n.d.)
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  1. 1
    Part 1 - Witchcraft Through the Ages 16:11
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New Hermitage + Jeff Reilly II

New Hermitage

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Recorded live at St. Paul's Church on February 13th, 2020. This live concert is the follow up to the 2018 award winning record New Hermitage + Jeff Reilly. Originally one track, we have chopped it into digestible sizes for the digital release.
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  1. 1
    Part I - opening duo, group improvisation 5:31
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  2. 2
    Part II - group improvisation 13:56
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  3. 3
    Part III - group improvisation 3:49
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  4. 4
    Part IV - cello/bass clarinet duo 4:53
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  5. 5
    Part V - collection of duets, group finale. 18:21
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OBEY Convention XI

New Hermitage

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This sophomore release by Halifax ambient improvisation group, New Hermitage, features music from their first release, 'one', as well as new improvisations. Recorded at OBEY Convention XI this live album accurately captures the ethos of New Hermitage, patient collective improvisations based on sparse compositions that allow the musicians and
This sophomore release by Halifax ambient improvisation group, New Hermitage, features music from their first release, 'one', as well as new improvisations. Recorded at OBEY Convention XI this live album accurately captures the ethos of New Hermitage, patient collective improvisations based on sparse compositions that allow the musicians and listener to experience their shared listening environment. Like the hermits of our speculative imaginings (see New Hermitage 'one') New Hermitage's direction is shaped by the soundscape as it in turn gives shape to it.
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  1. 1
    Naturally Sapced - Si Sh Oh - NHii - Trappist-1 25:27
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New Hermitage + Jeff Reilly

New Hermitage + Jeff Reilly

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New Hermitage and Jeff Reilly.
Live at the Halifax Music Co-op.

Andrew MacKelvie, saxophone
Ellen Gibling, harp
Ross Burns, guitar
Jeff Reilly, bass clarinet.

One of the first concerts of improvised music I saw when I moved to Halifax was Jerry Granelli’s V16 with the Sanctuary Trio and it would have been the first time that I saw Jeff perform.
New Hermitage and Jeff Reilly.
Live at the Halifax Music Co-op.

Andrew MacKelvie, saxophone
Ellen Gibling, harp
Ross Burns, guitar
Jeff Reilly, bass clarinet.

One of the first concerts of improvised music I saw when I moved to Halifax was Jerry Granelli’s V16 with the Sanctuary Trio and it would have been the first time that I saw Jeff perform. It was probably 2008. So it’s fitting that 10 years later, in the time leading up to leaving Halifax, that I have had the chance to work with him. I only wish we had started working together sooner! We first played together in the Upstream Orchestra and then for his latest release To Dream of Silence. It was sometime last winter when, to my great joy, he floated the idea of doing something with New Hermitage.

It was easy to work together. In rehearsal and at the concert the blend between the two horns made it hard to tell who was creating what part of the ball of sound. Like watching a flock of starlings, it just moves. Hopefully there will be more opportunities to collaborate in the future. In the meantime I hope you enjoy this record.

Andrew
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  1. 1
    Improvisation 1 (i) 19:20
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  2. 2
    Improvisation 1 (ii) 5:44
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  3. 3
    Improvisation 2 12:44
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one

New Hermitage

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New Hermitage imagines a future in which pollution has caused the population of the Earth to plummet and dangerously high levels of toxicity have rendered the cities of the world uninhabitable, causing the surviving humans to live in the sparse wilderness that remains. However, a few people have returned to the cities. These new hermits, armed
New Hermitage imagines a future in which pollution has caused the population of the Earth to plummet and dangerously high levels of toxicity have rendered the cities of the world uninhabitable, causing the surviving humans to live in the sparse wilderness that remains. However, a few people have returned to the cities. These new hermits, armed with patience and tenderness, work with nature to restore our planet.

Tracks 1-4 features the band were recorded live in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Track 5 is solo piece that was recorded at the White Rabbit Artist Residency in Upper Economy, NS. It was recorded in a parched river bed.
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  1. 1
    naturally spaced 2:22
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  2. 2
    new hermitage ii 5:31
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  3. 3
    si sh oh 4:21
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  4. 4
    trappist-1 5:09
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  5. 5
    two days before the river bed flooded i. ii. iii. 18:54
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