Minimal-psych trio Absolutely Free performed original score music to influential films and animations by Norman McLaren of the National Film Board of Canada. To celebrate the seminal Canadian/Scottish-born filmmaker’s centenary, the Toronto International Film Festival commissioned Absolutely Free to compose and perform original soundtracks to six McLaren/NFB creations, such as Pas de deux (1968) and Synchromy (1971). For Re-sounding The Films of Norman McLaren, Absolutely Free played live to brick-wall projections of these films with an intuitiveness that honoured the pioneering visual art and sonic invention of Norman McLaren. Presented in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada, TIFF, and Chart Attack, the performance lives on with a series of videos pairing Absolutely Free’s score with Norman McLaren’s original films.

Following “Re-sounding: Synchromy”, which reinterpreted McLaren’s innovative graphical sound piece, and “Re-sounding: Mosaic”, a blend of experimental animation and layered sonics, Absolutely Free now releases “Re-sounding: Spheres”. The 1969 animation by McLaren and René Jodoin, with its atmosphere of radiant pearls dancing over otherworldly surfaces, was originally set to Bach’s The Goldberg Variations as performed by Glenn Gould. Here, Absolutely Free intuits the celestial balance of Spheres with cascading arpeggios, subtly layering, inflecting, and modulating with the pearls’ movement.

Absolutely Free will perform live at Arts & Craft’s POP Montreal showcase at Fairmont Theatre on September 19, alongside label-mates The Cribs, Farao, WIN WIN, and producer River Tiber, as well as September 20 at Bloor Ossington Folk Festival and October 18 at X Avant Festival at The Music Gallery in Toronto. The band recently completed an art installation and performance at the inaugural Camp Wavelength on Toronto Island.

Absolutely Free. Tracklisting:

1. Window of Time
2. Beneath The Air
3. Striped Light
4. Burred Lens
5. Earth II
6. My Dim Age
7. Vision’s
8. Spiral Jetty

TOUR DATES:

Sept 19 – Montreal QC – POP Montreal w/ The Cribs, Farao, WIN WIN, River Tiber
Sept 20 – Toronto ON – Bloor Ossington Folk Festival w/ Lullabye Arkestra, Soupcans, Michael Feuerstack
Oct 18 – Toronto ON – X Avant Festival w/ Keita Juma

https://youtu.be/_hC4z5tTcTc