Wavelength & Images Fest Present: Polydactyl Hearts – April 3rd Toronto
Polydactyl Hearts Collective
Combining innovative live music with evocative graphic art, Guelph’s Polydactyl Hearts Collective explores the performative intersections of sight and sound. Best known for the creation of Le Cyc, the “graphic novel bike opera” that debuted in 2008 and told the tale of a future, bicycle-powered dystopia, the PHC were commissioned by Wavelength to create a new piece to premiere at the 2010 Images Festival. Appropriately enough, as it launches Wavelength’s new era of monthly presentations — the first since our hugely successful Wavelength 500 10th Anniversary Festival — this new project centres on themes of transition and change through a series of short pieces.
The first segment combines projected drawings and paintings by Dave Willekes, synchronized with original music composed and performed by a six-piece orchestra. Willekes’ stop-motion visuals are created using a single canvas, photographed consecutively, as oil paints are applied, erased, and re-applied. The music – a sextet of electric bass, drums, piano, saxophone, violin and vibraphone – ranges from instrumental scores to lyrically driven narratives. Composed collectively, the music affects the painting process just as much as the painting and storyboarding affect the composition of the score: images correspond to specific timbres or melodic and metric changes within the music. Telling a story of a rapidly transforming world in which basic social structures begin to unravel as urban spaces morph over time, the performance examines how changing physical surroundings reflect the evolving ideologies of a society.
The second section of the project delves into language and communication, illuminating how speech and the transmission of digital information are processes dependant upon organized transitions. Further building on the visual compositions of the first performance, this piece uses synchronized live computer processing to manipulate both
sound and image.
Biological mutation and cell division are explored at a microscopic level in the project’s final segment. Tongues and teeth become visual metaphors for DNA strands as stop-motion paintings depict the process of cell mutation. Replicating the splitting of cells, the musical score is built around time signatures that constantly multiply and shift form to match the visuals. With musical and visual styles in constant flux, this new performance situates itself within various transitional phases in its attempt to shift our bias towards the means and not the end.
Polydactyl Hearts Collective is a multimedia music/art collective based in Guelph, Ontario. The collective is made up of musicians Eihab Boraie (vocals/piano/synthesizer), Claire Whitehead (violin), Martin Eckart (saxophone/clarinet), Dan Paille (percussion), Andra Zommers (vibraphone/vocals), and Brad McInerney (bass) with artist David Willekes providing the projected visual component. Their last project, Le Cyc told the story of a dystopian bike powered future society.
Wavelength & the Images Festival present
Saturday April 3
WAVELENGTH 501 / Part of the Images Festival (Live Images #2)
Polydactyl Hearts Collective (Creators of Le Cyc)
+ I Know Where I’m Going (Film by Ben Rivers)
@ Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St.
9:30pm • $10 / $8 Images members + students/seniors
Le Cyc Art on Display & DVD Updates!
Excuse the lack of updates, we’ve been really busy finishing up our Le Cyc DVD as well as preparing a new project to debut on April 3rd at Images Festival. There are some exciting things coming up. Dave Willekes will be showing the entire works of Le Cyc in order at the e-Bar (41 Quebec St) starting this Thursday and running until April 24th. This show features every slide mounted in order throughout the bar, it’s really impressive, and it’s the first time every original illustration has been displayed together in physical form. The art opening is Thursday March 4th at 9:30 at the e-Bar (41 Quebec St.) in Guelph.
Also, we are almost finished our DVD for Le Cyc. Our friend Devin Smith has produced a short film about the making of Le Cyc as well as designed the title menus and layout of the DVD. We’re also finishing up mixing and mastering of the audio. We’re looking at a release in May/June with a string of shows.
We are almost ready to debut our new multimedia project. We’re using the collective name ‘Polydactly Hearts’. Here’s the early details:
Images Festival & Wavelength present:
Polydactyl Hearts Collective
+ guests TBA
Saturday April 3 @ Workman Arts (651 Dufferin St.)
$10 / $8 members
We’ll post more details soon.
Le Cyc DVD & New Project
Photo by Olivia Brown
The photo to the right is of our hometown show on Nov. 20th at the Dublin St. United Church in Guelph. This show was a really special one for us as we did a live multi-track recording of the show that will be used for our DVD. The mixing and production of the audio will be handled by our friend Evan Gordon. We are also continuing work on a documentary that is being put together by Devin Smith. We’re planning to have the deluxe DVD package ready for April 2010. Please keep checking back here or join our facebook group to be notified when it’s ready. We are planning a physical release with a small booklet as well as a digital download version.
There are also a few recent reviews of our last two shows of the tour. Our Guelph show is featured in the Ontarion, and our London show was reviewed in the University of Western Gazette.
We are taking some time off playing shows this winter to work on a new project that will debut in April 2010 at Images Festival. The new project will be a shorter program that will be comprised of a series of short multimedia pieces. It will be a completely new direction and is not a sequel to Le Cyc.
We are still accepting show offers and booking opportunities for late spring or summer of 2010. Please feel free to get in touch. We are particularly interested in unique locations, warehouses, artist run centres and arts festivals.
We’ll try to keep the website updated throughout the winter and hopefully we’ll have a trailer preview of the DVD and possibly short excerpts from the documentary to post soon. Thanks!
November Shows & Recent Press
Photo by Stephanie Vegh - www.stephanievegh.ca
Thanks to everyone who’s come to support Le Cyc so far this fall. We’ve played in some really amazing artist run centres and alternative art spaces throughout the fall. Many thanks go out to the hard working people who run Eastern Bloc, The Artel, The Music Gallery, The Brantford Arts Block, SAW Gallery, and the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre for their hospitality and help putting these shows on. We’ve been really inspired by the response so far and we’ve been having a lot of fun playing Le Cyc for new audiences.
People have been writing about Le Cyc too, here’s a list of some recent newspaper articles: Eye Weekly, The Hour, The Link, The Ontarion, Broken Pencil. The photo on the right is from a blog post about our Hamilton show last weekend.
We still have two shows left in our fall tour: Friday November 20th at Dublin St. United Church in Guelph and Sunday November 22nd at the Arts Project in London. Advance tickets for the Guelph show are available at Ground Floor Music (13 Quebec St) and the CSA office at the University of Guelph. The London show is admission at the door and is graciously hosted by a kickass arts collective in London called the Open House Arts Collective. These shows will be the last Le Cyc shows for awhile, as we’re busy working on a new multimedia project to debut in April 2010 at Images Festival. So catch it while you can!
We also have an interview coming up on CFRU 93.3 FM in Guelph, on Friday November 20th between 10am and 11am. We’ll be playing excerpts from the show and talking about Le Cyc. If you’re not in Guelph, you can listen online at www.cfru.ca.
We are also working away on a DVD version of Le Cyc, the disc will feature interviews, a short documentary, and a live recording of the show alongside the artwork. Check back here over the next few months or join our facebook group to be updated when we release the DVD.
Fall Shows & New Prints
We’re getting ready for another string of shows this fall. Most of them are at artist run centres or alternative warehouse spaces. These shows will also include a gallery of original paintings from the program. We also have new song arrangements for sections of the show, so even if you’ve seen it before it’s worth coming out. We’re really excited to be playing Ottawa, Montreal, and Kingston for the first time.
We’ve also got a new poster print in our series. The new poster is the picture to the right. Like the other posters in our series it is a 15″ x 22″ silkscreen print that is hand painted with coffee and wine by illustrator Dave Willekes. We’ve also got a 1.5″ button series featuring different illustrations from the program. And we finally have spoke cards featuring the ‘democratic bike race’ that will be on sale at each of our shows.
We are starting work on a mini documentary about Le Cyc to accompany our DVD release planned for March/April of 2010. We’ll post some short videos over the next few months to give a preview.
There is also an article about Le Cyc in Eye Weekly.
Le Cyc in Egypt & Summer Updates
Egypt Crew
We’re starting to rehearse again to prepare for some fall shows and recording. We’ve got a show scheduled for Toronto at the Music Gallery on Friday September 18th and a few more southern Ontario dates in the works. We are currently looking for suitable venues (small theatres, warehouses, etc) in Montreal and Ottawa. If you have any suggestions please get in touch.
We’ve also begun work on a new multimedia project that will debut in spring 2010 at Images Festival in Toronto. The project is still in the very early stages but we can already say that it is an entirely new project and not a sequel or prequel to Le Cyc. Expect something totally different!
Also, we’ve redesigned the website. You’ll find some higher resolution videos, a forum for feedback and comments, and a much more organized setup. We’re still working on it, so if you find any problems let us know. If you want to keep in touch please join our facebook group.
Hope you’re having a great summer so far and keep pedalling!
