Earth, leaves, uglies

My last MOSSO performance, given a need for a break before a choral recording that evening.  Sadly I missed two final MOSSO concerts and they looking interesting but there are limits.  This was Ensemble Contrechamps performing four works by indigenous composers against the biggest TV screen of decent resolution that I've seen.  Compositions by Nardi Simpson, Nicole Smede, Aaron Wyatt and Davin Ojala touched on deeply unpleasant through to more positive portrayals of people in the land.  Much sounded with sparse movements as of earth and leaves, one had supremely ugly quotes from known persons in recent history, another moved with a lovely effective bass line, so considerable diversity from four composers.  All moved with background visuals, some more obviously aligned.  One spot had me stunned with a sax solo that displayed jazz chops, but mostly sax played tones; similarly one had a lovely moving bass part, and again mostly played more abstract parts.    

Ensemble Contrechamps comprised Thierry Debons (percussion), Pierre-Stephane Meuge (sax), Maximilian Haft (violin), Hans Egidi (viola), Martina Brodbeck (cello), Noelle Reymond Ruegg (bass), Susanna Peters (flute), Laurent Bruttin (clarinet) and Antoine Francoise (keyboard).  They performed music of Nardi Simpson, Nicole Smede, Aaron Wyatt and Davin Ojala at NFSA for MOSSO during CIMF2026.