DreamPlay Small Concerts have returned this fall with their typical slate of genre-bending offerings. The artistic collective took to their regular venue at the Winnipeg Art Gallery last month with a show called The Blues and the Abstract Truth, which featured curator Glenn Buhr and other musicians forming a sub-group called the DreamPlay Rebels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For their next concert, Buhr will take off his ringleader hat and step into the ensemble in one of several new steps for the organization this year. Most notably, DreamPlay\u2019s upcoming concert Resonance will mark the first time in the series\u2019 four-year history that they will be performing away from the Winnipeg Art Gallery and heading to south Osborne to collaborate with improvisation ensemble Midbrain Surfers at Sidestage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a bit of an experiment for us,\u201d says Buhr. \u201cThis is us DreamPlay people getting away from the highbrow Winnipeg Art Gallery and putting our dancing shoes on and going clubbing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New roles, new music\u00a0<\/p>\n
The curatorial role in Resonance will be held by bassist and oud player Jay Taylor of the Midbrain Surfers. He along with fellow band members Kiva Simova, Chris Mama-Bauer and Mike Thompson will provide the sonic soundscape for the evening with distinctive musical instruments like the oud and the didgeridoo. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s going to feel like dancing,\u201d Buhr says as he describes the sound of the Midbrain Surfers. \u201cThe music is very subtle and everything, but it\u2019s also got a groove.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always new, no matter what. There\u2019s always some kind of newness.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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The Midbrain Surfers will be joined by word artist Margaret Sweatman contributing text on top of the improvised music as well as video artist Murray Toews who will help to provide a visual accompaniment to the evening.<\/p>\n
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Improvised resistance\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite all of its unique characteristics, Resonance is a continuation of DreamPlay\u2019s desire to share music with a message, speaking truth to power in a time where power is creating havoc for people all over the world. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pushing back against the coerce of government,\u201d says Buhr, highlighting performances of songs by Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and The Parachute Club at their previous concert. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Resonance\u2019s resistance is captured by an original composition of Buhr\u2019s called “God of War”, which he wrote alongside Sweatman (his wife) as she completed her novel The Gunsmith\u2019s Daughter at the outset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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\u201cSometimes, when she\u2019s writing, she\u2019ll write a poem about the character,\u201d Buhr explains of the origins of “God of War”. \u201cIt takes you through the experience of being in a village when it\u2019s being bombed and the bombs are coming down on you, and then, just after the music finishes up, the bomb has already landed… it\u2019s as if you\u2019re in heaven, frankly, because there\u2019s been so much death and all that, all you\u2019re doing is wishing for peace.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou walk away just hating the ugliness of war,\u201d Buhr continues about experiencing this work. \u201cI think music is all anti-war. There\u2019s tons of anti-war music all throughout the centuries because we\u2019ve never been without war, and so we always need to be pushing back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n