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Music

Alicia Hansen

ALICIA HANSEN with GABE LEVINE at Tranzac Southern Cross (292 Brunswick), Wednesday (May 11). Pwyc. tranzac.org. See listing.


When right-wingers complain that Canada Council grants are a waste of taxpayers’ money on art that no one wants, they should consider the case of British Columbia’s Alicia Hansen. Her self-released debut album, Fractography, is a strong collection of off-kilter piano pop that has a real shot at wider success. And it never would have been made without government support.

“Nothing was really happening with my music until someone suggested that I apply for a Canada Council grant,” Hansen recalls from her Bowen Island home. “I did and then sort of forgot about it. When I found out I’d received one, it gave me a deadline for the album and the money to make it. It really lit a fire under my ass.”

Forced out of the hermit mindset she’d fallen into, Hansen developed a style in which her ethereal voice and classically informed arrangements come together in experimental pop that’s both listenable and challenging. Her chops are impressive, so it’s no surprise to learn that her background is in classical and jazz, though she’s mostly left those worlds behind./p>

“I was so frustrated with having spent my whole life doing this classical training and still being unable to sit down at the piano and just play something.”

That frustration led her to jazz studies that built her improvisation skills, the missing link for many classical players who struggle with composition. Still, she was never completely comfortable with the genre.

“I never felt like a jazz musician. I didn’t grow up listening to jazz, so it felt a bit forced. But I loved the harmonic language and the freedom to improvise. I get my classical and jazz fixes in my own music now, and that’s enough for me.”

It’s rare to come across a musician so fully formed yet so new to touring and recording. If that’s the kind of gravy that government money can cook up, let’s keep the train moving.

benjaminb@nowtoronto.com

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