I believe love is just chemistry and evolutionary programming and I believe it’s the most real thing we experience. I believe the universe is meaningless matter following physical laws and I believe my choices matter profoundly. In a recent podcast interview with my longtime friend and colleague Jeremy Sirota I told him, “I like to…
Western esoteric teachings demonstrate how sound functions as both physical phenomenon and metaphysical principle, providing a framework for understanding the receptive states that enable profound creative and spiritual transformation. Sound holds a central position in esoteric traditions because it functions as both physical phenomenon and metaphysical principle. Ancient mystery schools understood that perception operates across…
August 14, 2025 On their 30th (!) anniversary, it is a real joy to be featured in All About Jazz’s “Meet the Staff” section. This brief little interview managed to capture a lot of my attitudes and philosophies.
From Toronto to Australia, musicians are leaving streaming platforms over AI policies that treat machine output as equivalent to human creativity. The music press covers technology fears while missing the economic exploitation driving artist exodus. The music industry’s AI fear is absolutely justified. But the music press is covering the wrong story. While publications run…
I did not coin this phrase, but I love it as a way to counter self-pity. It’s easy to feel like things happen to you rather than with you. The party was boring, but you didn’t really try to make it better. The relationship ended badly, but you mostly avoided the difficult conversations that might…
This year marks the first time I have been invited to participate in the Downbeat Magazine Annual Critics Poll (their 73rd!). I barely consider myself a journalist and certainly not a critic but it was really a hoot to be asked to to this. Information about the issue with the results can be found here.
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“Proudly Canadian, about Canadian Music that Impacts the World” Read my work on That Canadian Magazine
It was a treat and an honor to have my picks included in The Mid-Year Edition of the Francis Davis Jazz Poll. I do not submit my picks ranked. The order they are listed does not imply order of preference. Here they are: NEW ALBUMS Kinan Azmeh and CityBand, Live in Berlin (Dreyer Gaido) →…
by All About Jazz Staff, July 2, 2025 As we hit the halfway mark of 2025, All About Jazz has adopted Major League Baseball’s All-Star break approach but swapping homers for albums. Their team of 55 writers convened to name their top three albums of the year so far, with Mary Halvorson’s About Ghosts (Nonesuch)…
My project Burning Dervish creates electro-acoustic ambient music and soundscapes using a mixture of process, rules, prompts, found sounds, improvisation, and composition. Full-Length Albums Compilation Appearances Playlist Placements
Sound carries more than melody and rhythm. It is a transmission medium for consciousness across time and space. Time is not what most people think it is. Ancient mystery schools knew this millennia ago, teaching initiates that we experience time through consciousness, not some external clock. Musicians have stumbled back onto this truth through their…