This year's Open Ears Festival ended with a concert by /~spin~/ in the City Hall Rotunda, featuring a mix of flute, theremin and live and recorded electronics. Ellen Waterman and James Harley filled the sanctuary-like space with a primal, aboriginal sound, filled with samples taken from nature: wind, thunder, birds, rain. And, just like that, I'd come full circle from where I'd started along the banks of the Grand River on Friday. Not to mention it was by far the coolest performance I've ever heard inside a municipal building.
For a city with a population barely over 200,000, this sleepy burg an hour west of Toronto managed to host a weekend of some of the most thought-provoking sound experiences I've heard in a long time. And, with more art festivals planned in the early fall, it would be a shame if more people didn't come here to check it out for themselves. (More pics below.)O