From the mydriasis of Sara Bortolon-Vettor:

We are at the peak of Scotch Mountain. Beings of the weirdo variety, charming locals of Meaford and the artists within us all are called to the funny farm to gather. As the sun sets, beautiful beings adore the fuscia lit sky while our auditory senses are tickled with wonder. Electric Eclectics is a fantasy world to many who seek to escape their concrete surroundings and experience artistry in nature.

EE’s curation by Chris Worden (Co-director/Natural Thirst) is eccentrically diverse and distinctive. Thanks to the incomparable artists, Gordon Monahan (Co-director/Sound Artist/Owner) and Laura Kikauka (Performance Artist/Owner) for welcoming us all to their funny farm.

From the perpetually sunglass-ed Brian Cleveland:

As with catchy songs, simple, silly, and stripped down (yet uneasy to decipher) repetition in videos is sometimes the most effective. This dark, dreamy, whimsical, brooding, and hypnotic video featuring sunglasses after dark warrants repeat viewings.

The fourth installment of Wyrd, Weird Canada’s traveling series of exploration and collaboration, features an incredible lineup of otherworldly sound and vision traveling between Toronto and Montreal. We’re proudly collaborating with two of Canada’s most forward-thinking musical ventures: Montreal’s Suoni Per Il Popolo and Toronto’s The Music Gallery (as part of their Pop-Avant series).

We’re proud to host a unique collaboration between Toronto’s folk goddess Jennifer Castle and bog-lord Wyrd Visions. Harkening to their early, experimental roots the two are recreating their magyk for the first time in years. Joining the ethereal duo is Zachary Fairbrother, taking a departure from the proto-punk shreddery of Lantern to disarm audiences with his multi-amp, multi-guitar feedback-drone orchestra, sure to fill the sacred halls of The Music Gallery (Toronto) and Casa del Popolo (Montreal) with glorious standing waves of dense vibration. Each evening will be ceremoniously opened by Isla Craig‘s sublime choral grooves, amplified through collaboration with her Soul Sisters Supreme Redux 2.0, completing Wyrd’s sonic triumvirate.

In addition to the festive sounds, both Montreal and Toronto have unique additions of their own.

Toronto: A special “Listening Salon” will be hosted Saturday afternoon featuring Weird Canada’s Aaron Levin and Jesse Locke dissecting the many unique releases from Music Gallery Editions (1976 – 1983).

Montreal: opening the Montreal show are The High Dukes, a special collaborative group comprised of members from Kinnta Records.

Event Info

Montreal

Date: Friday May 10, 2013
Location: Casa del Popolo (4873 Boul. St-Laurent, Montreal, QC)
Ticket Price: $10 advanced / $12 at the door
Ticket Url: http://wyrdiv.eventbrite.ca/
Doors: 9pm

Toronto:

Date: Saturday May 11, 2013
Location: The Music Gallery (197 John Street, Toronto, ON)
Ticket Price: $10 members / $13 advanced at SoundScapes / $17 regular
Ticket Url: https://www.musicgallery.org/ticketing/raots_start.php/
Doors: 7pm
All ages welcome

!!! Weird Canada Listening Salon !!!
Date: Saturday May 11, 2013 @ 3pm
Location: The Music Gallery, Fellowship Room (197 John Street, Toronto, ON)
Ticket Price: free!!
Doors: 3pm
All ages welcome!

From the cult-like gathering of James Goddard:

The small college town of Sackville, New Brunswick harbours a secret. Every summer while students shop for discount books in major cities, a cult-like gathering of outsiders convenes to celebrate strange sounds in large tents, vaudeville theatres, small town cinemas and railside taverns. Turning the concept of a multi-venue festival on its head each year, SappyFest finds not the alterna-side spaces where loud noises are welcome but puts all the plaid shirts, fuzz peddles and puddles of beer right on the main street. First hosting the reunited Eric’s Trip in 2006, Sappy has grown and grown. This year’s lineup promises not to disappoint, showcasing the luminaries of independent Canadian culture both new and old, familiar and not. Alongside as yet un-tauted gems such as Cannon Bros, Hash Jesus, SILKEN LAUMANN and Wooden Wives, this year’s lineup boasts sets by current Weird Canada favourites Jennifer Castle, Chad VanGaalen, Rich Aucoin, Gobble Gobble, Grimes and Quaker Parents. And that’s just the pop music. See you there?

At the wintry tail of 2010, Toronto’s spook-folk minstrel Jennifer Castle teamed with the ever-enigmatic Wyrd Visions for a stunningly beautiful 12″ split. Four months later, Calgary-based boutique label Flemish Eye gives us the follow-up, an expanded excursion through the wardrobe and into Castle’s enchanted kingdom. Accentuating pillow-soft vocals and delicate finger-plucks with flourishes of pedal steel, organ, medieval flute and signature fusion instrument ‘the guitlele.’ Castlemusic casts a spell you won’t want to counter. In line with the site’s physicality m.o., Weird Canada asked Castle to take part in the inaugural edition of our latest feature “Ephemera”, assembling a shrine of totemic objects that played a part in the album’s creation.

By: Jesse Locke

Weird Canada // Texture Magazine

Feel free to listen to these two tracks from the album while you peruse the images below (which you can click for larger versions). The accompanied text was provided by Jennifer Castle. We’re very grateful to Jennifer, David Clarke, Ian Russell (Flemish Eye), and Landon Speers (photos) for this very special feature.

Jennifer Castle – Neverride

Jennifer Castle – Powers

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From the (blue) fog bath of Michael Deane

The Bog Lord and Haunting Pixie return to add to each other’s tales, but gently, with contemplative, (blue) fog-bathed, repetitively folk-essed meditations. Side Wyrd finds Colin Bergh reveling in single guitar riffs that cascade from their centre into softly sung Nordic tales. Finger-plucked medieval guitar patterns sit in the back while a four-note bass line twists and repeats. Bergh’s voice brings you further into a trance, struggling to find the beginning and end. When Jennifer Castle joins him, the waves combine and the tide swells, prepping you for Queen-like vocal stabs that bring this to new levels of acoustic-black-metal-folk-prog. Side Castle flips the script with a delicately plucked minor guitar pattern and soulfully smooth, airy vocals examining the powers above. Sporadic toms fill in the emptiness to give a surprisingly lush start to this solo-turned-strange-duet. Bergh re-enters the fold, echoing CM’s questioning of the voice of God. Together, they create an epically surreal musical landscape. Grip Hurr..

From the nostalgic words of Aaron Levin:

It’s precious that a folk record can prove to be most metal recording I’ve heard. My problem with metal is that I went to a Christian Junior-High school and spent a year in the library devouring books on the occult. I want metal to bring me back to the musty ambience of the library I spent so many lunch-breaks. Which means I don’t care how many pentagrams and crude logos you draw on your record; unless you bring the bog-drenched, harrowing mysticism of Wyrd Visions’ stripped guitar, double-tracked Swedish vocals, and breathless, frozen air: you have nothing. So, for all you aspiring metal-heads out there: take your cues from this minimal folk departure that will surely solidify Satan’s reign and bring victory to the Whore of Babylon. It also helps that he does a Mayhem cover and has Castlemusic sing with him.

Wyrd Visions – Ceremony

Wyrd Vision – Freezing Moon