All the free Northern Series shows
Sure, we bring a bunch of out-of-towners, and sure, we like them well enough. But you know what else we like? Locals.
That’s why we’re back with our Northern Series of locally grown hometowners. They’ll be showing up over the weekend during happy hour at a smattering of local establishments, so grab a drink, grab a snack, and get listening.
Emilio Portal
Laughing Buddha, Friday 5 p.m.
Emilio Portal's practice merges analog and digital, rhythm and chaos, composition and improvisation, to manifest a mixed identity tinged with vulnerability. His music, nourished by sound samples captured in the field, develops over time and reveals influences from the funk, jazz, and fusion of the ’70s to hip-hop of the ’90s.
Maxwell José
Le Bistro, Friday 5 p.m.
Maxwell spent the first 12 years of his life growing up in the small mining town of Marathon, on the north shore of Lake Superior. The romanticized idea of growing up in a small town—knowing everyone, known by everyone—holds true for him. Turns out life in the country isn't all that different from life in the bush, and he spent his formative years in Illinois, before moving back up north after high school. In the darker days of the six-month-long winters, there's not much to save you from yourself. That's where his songs come from.
Matt Foy’s Ambient Adventures
Laughing Buddha, Saturday 5 p.m.
Inspired by ’50s and ’60s instrumental music, Matt Foy will take you on a cinematic journey through dust bowls, dive bars, and speedways. Mixing elements of dub, reggae, ska, and surf with rich, pedal-driven, dark ambiance, his improvisations have been released weekly since the beginning of the pandemic. If Ennio Morricone, Link Wray, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, and Daniele Luppi formed a band, it might sound a little like Matt Foy.
aurel
Le Bistro, Saturday 5 p.m.
Born Cecilia-Aurel Rodriguez-Beaudoin, Aurel writes in the languages of her childhood: Spanish, French, and English. Her style was shaped by artists from Latin and North America, from Selena Quintanilla to Regina Spektor, from Natalia Lafourcade to Klô Pelgag. Her voice and piano weave luminous songs imbued with poetry.
Louis Simao
Le Bistro, Saturday 6 p.m.
Originally from Toronto, but now Festival Director for Jazz Sudbury up here, the award-winning Louis Simão’s music takes the listener on a journey through the sounds of the Portuguese-speaking world as experienced by this first-generation Canadian son of Portuguese immigrants. His cultural background combined with his jazz sensibility and chamber music compositional style come together to create a voice that is at once universal and deeply personal.
Will Powers
Knowhere Public House, Sunday 5 p.m.
Wearer-of-many-hats Oli Palkovits’s personal project, Will Powers, serves as the main vehicle for his synesthetic approach to music, thoughtfully but effortlessly blending different textures into a nostalgic, reflective pattern. Centered around shimmering and reverb-drenched acoustic guitar, some pedal effected electric guitar, and a propulsive backbeat, his work was once described as “a gently buzzing yet half-remembered dream of a song.”
