ESMERINE with BERNICE and BABY CAGES at the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton), Friday (November 13), 8:30 pm. $12. wavelengthtoronto.com.
Bruce Cawdron left Montreal in 2007 to live in Wakefield, Quebec, an idyllic, rustic outpost near Ottawa. The one-time drummer for Godspeed You! Black Emperor loves the area but had to adjust to the change from big-city life.
“Wakefield is a village, and villages are pretty sweet unless there’s a scandal going on, in which case it’s maybe better to hide out,” he says on a conference call with Montreal-based Rebecca Foon, his primary co-conspirator in the chamber rock ensemble Esmerine. “There’s always scandal in a village, just like a neighbourhood.”
Founded in 2001, Esmerine is an exploratory outlet for Cawdron, a marimba player and percussionist, and Foon, a cellist who once played in Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. They recently released their glorious, charged-up fifth album, Lost Voices (Constellation), a follow-up to their Juno Award-winning 2013 album, Dalmak.
When asked about the instrumental record’s comparably wilder spirit (and unexpected incorporation of amplified electric guitar), Foon says its urgency stems from the increasing effort it takes for Esmerine to convene these days.
“For some of us, making music isn’t something we can control any more – it just comes out of us. Because we’re in a different phase of our trajectories, making music at this point is a celebration of still being active and a part of each other’s lives. For us to be inspired, it needs to be authentic, and we need to be continually exploring and diving into new territory. It needs to speak to the heart.
“Lost Voices taps into some of the work I’ve been doing around climate change, biodiversity and conservation, so it definitely pulls at my heart strings,” she adds. “The rock influence has been a fun new direction for the band. It’s fun for us, post-Mt. Zion and Godspeed, to make some louder music and rock out together.”
Like Foon, Cawdron believes that all of us must address earth’s precarious future.
“The world will go on with us or without us, but there’s an urgency to give a big kick in the ass to all of our cultures in regard to our use of fossil fuels, plastics and chemicals and their impact, and to change all of their vested interests,” he says.
“It’s capitalism that’s dragging its feet. All of these companies have their ways of making money, and it’s difficult to get them to change their ways without legislation. We need to harness our energy and direct it in a positive way.”
music@nowtoronto.com | @vishkhanna
