Fyear Fyear

FYEAR is a Montréal-based ensemble led by composer Jason Sharp and poet/writer KaieKellough that fuses spoken word into genre-bending compositions for electronics, two voices,two drummers, and processed saxophone, pedal steel guitar, and violins. FYEAR incorporatesdrone, out-jazz, post-classical, ambient metal, avant-rock, and modular synthesis in a sonicand stylistic palette the opposite of collage or pastiche: the FYEAR ensemble integrates aunique and unified sound/aesthetic while traversing adventurous and variegated terrain.Kellough's poetic materiality conveys acute political-existential themes, alternating betweendeclarative, meditative, and cut-up/semiotic manifestations. This self-titled debut album is asupremely innovative 40-minute multi-movement work; an ardent mission statement thatmines the interzone where Saul Williams, Moor Mother/Irreversible Entanglements, ShabazzPalaces, Zulu, Angel Bat Dawid, Damon Locks/Black Monument Ensemble, Shabaka Hutchings,and Matana Roberts are all iconoclastic neighbours.FYEAR melds improvisation and composition, traditional notation and graphic scoring,electronic and acoustic instrumentation, lucid recitation and abstract vocalization, balancingintensive structure with an expansive sense of exploration. Through several years ofcollaboration, development, workshops, commissions and performances conducted by Sharpand Kellough, their wordsound practice has culminated in this nine-piece group which alsofeatures poet/writer/activist Tawhida Tanya Evanson (present director of the Banff CentreSpoken Word program) violinists Josh Zubot and Jesse Zubot (Tanya Tagaq, Darius Jones,Joshua Hyslop), pedal steel player Joe Grass (Tim Hecker, Patrick Watson), drummers StefanSchneider (Bell Orchestre) and Tommy Crane (The Mingus Big Band, Aaron Parks), with livevisual [typo]graphics from Kevin Yuen-Kit Lo, who also designs the album art.Propelled by the vocal interactions of Kellough and Evanson, FYEAR interrogates our presentand future...