BEAMS and the CEC present… A Double Header!! CEC Jeu de temp/Times Play (JTTP) Competition winning works + BEAMS Together Apart VI…an evening of audio wonderments

 

 BEAMS and the CEC present…

A Double Header!!


CEC Jeu de temp/Times Play (JTTP) Competition winning works

+

BEAMS Together Apart VI…an evening of audio wonderments

 Date: Saturday, November 29, 2025

Times: 7:00 pm, JTTP. 9:00 pm, Together Apart.

Where: St. Mary’s Anglican Church, 11203 68 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta

Tickets: $25 Non-members/$20 BEAMS members (for both concerts)


The Canadian Electroacoustic Community’s (CEC) Jeu de temp/Times Play (JTTP) Competition features recent works by young and/or emerging electroacoustic artists from or living in Canada. This is the 25th Anniversary year of the competition where the top 5 placing compositions and 7 thematic prize winners are awarded cash and non-cash prizes. BEAMS is honoured to be presenting the world premiere of the 2025 winning works in 8 channel surround. Barry Truax Award prize winner Graeme Dyck will be in attendance.


Together Apart is a concert curated by BEAMS President Shawn Pinchbeck of Edmonton sound and electroacoustic music artists. Each piece has been specially selected for this event to tickle your ears, lubricate your listening organs and open your third eye! 

 This is the 6th year of Together Apart, previously held online during the pandemic years and presented in-person for the first time. This year’s fantastical audio voyage will include live and video works by: Graeme Dyck, Echoradia, Don Hill, Instant Places, Mutant Beatniks, James Parrot, and The Swinging Santoros.


Please join us for this brimming evening of sound and performance.


The Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (BEAMS) is a non-profit society dedicated to the promotion and production of sound art, experimental music and new media. Its membership consists of professional musicians, composers and performance artists from diverse backgrounds driven to create a voice for sound orientated art in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
 
This event is sponsored by the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS), the Sound Studies Institute (SSI) and the Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology (CCE) at the University of Alberta. BEAMS thanks them for their support.

Media Contact:

Shawn Pinchbeck shawn@beams.ca


Facebook event:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1APfjkecT9/

PATIEN(T/CE) An electroacoustic event at Blakbar with Jess Keyes, Audrey Flowers, and Kelly Ruth

 

PATIEN(T/CE)
AN ELECTROACOUSTIC
EVENING AT
BLAKBAR

JESS KEYES
AUDREY FLOWERS
KELLY RUTH
+IMPROV/JAM

NOVEMBER 5
7:30 DOORS
8:00 MUSIC

Jess Keyes (Baltimore) explores chronic illness
and disability through voice, synthesizers,
and wearable handmade controllers.
Audrey Flowers hammers percussion and synthesis
Kelly Ruth spins a sonic spinning wheel.

BLAKBAR 10762 Whyte Ave
$15 PWYC 20251105T19:30

https://www.facebook.com/events/854330970371409 

 

Together Apart VI…an evening of audio wonderments: Call for live performances and videomusic works.

BEAMS presents
Together Apart VI…an evening of audio wonderments

Call for live performances and videomusic works! Deadline November 8, 2025!

We are seeking submissions for live performances and videomusic works from sound and electroacoustic music artists of all kinds, up to 20 minutes in length. This year, we will have an 8 channel sound system available for multichannel works! A modest artist fee will be paid for the accepted submissions.

Together Apart is an evening of sound and electroacoustic music artists from around the world to be presented by the Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (BEAMS) on November 29, 2025 at 8 pm at St. Mary’s Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and on our streaming channel: https://www.twitch.tv/beamsdotca

The previous five years’ events were very diverse with artists from Canada, UK, USA, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The performance and video works explored various facets of improvisation, modular synths, found sound objects, and location specific works. Their accompanying videos featured computer generated images, analogue video synthesizers, manipulated video, documentary style footage, 16 mm experimental film and documentation of the performance itself. We are again looking for diverse “audio wonderments” to share with our audience this year in a live setting!

Send your submissions by November 8th with the subject line “Together Apart VI” to:
beams-submission@googlegroups.com
 

Here’s a link to our 2024 event:
 

https://youtu.be/R1Pqfod9h_w?si=6RdrspARhMYsJaTH
 

The Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (BEAMS) is a non-profit society dedicated to the promotion and production of sound art, experimental music and new media. Its membership consists of professional musicians, composers and performance artists from diverse backgrounds driven to create a voice for sound orientated art in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
This event is sponsored by the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS). BEAMS thanks them for their continued support!
Contact:
Shawn Pinchbeck
shawn@beams.ca
www.beams.ca

     

BEAMS Drone Day 2025 Schedule

 

DroneDay 2025 in Edmonton on Saturday May 24th 2025 from 2pm to 10:30pm.  We'll be in person at the the Collins Studio Gallery 11741 94 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5G 1J1, just off 118 Ave surrounded by restaurants, galleries, grocery stores, and convenience stores. 

$5 PWYC for BEAMS MEMBERS
$10 for BEAMS MEMBERSHIP
$10 for membership + $5 PWYC for non members.

Here's the schedule for May 24th, 2025:

Time of Day		Artist	Set
2:00pm		paula eve kirman (all lowercase because i am cool)	30 Minutes
3:00pm		Wayne Defehr	30 Minutes
4:00pm		Jared Epp	30 Minutes
5:00pm		James Parrott	45 Minutes
6:00pm		Bibby Fibb	30 Minutes
7:00pm		Nathaniel Sutton	45 Minutes
8:00pm		Garlands	45 Minutes
9:00pm		Attasecond	30 Minutes
10:00pm		Gray Hartley and lunar blue	30 Minutes

BEAMS Presents Drone Day 2025

 

Edmonton DroneDay 2025

 

May 24th, 2025 in Edmonton come to BEAMS presents droneday 2pm to probably 10:30pm or 11pm. With lots of droners in no particular order. Garlands @rolandjazzchorus69 , Jared Epp  , attasecond with Elijah Hennig and Gary James Joynes, Wayne Defehr, James Parrott  , Nathaniel Sutto, paula eve kirman  , Bibby Fib  from Lloydminster , Gray Hartley and lunar blue. Collins Studio Gallery near 118 ave in Edmonton, AB, Canada.

 

Drone music is music with long tones, think the tubes on a bagpipe that the musician doesn't control, those are drones. Drone music is like that. Here's 6 hours of examples if you need a refresher on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDFcaXzo2sM Also see https://droneday.org/events.html

 

We'll be in person at the the Collins Studio Gallery 11741 94 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5G 1J1, just off 118 Ave surrounded by restaurants, galleries, grocery stores, and convenience stores.

 

It'll be from 2pm to 10:30pm on May 24th, 2025.

Email us at beams-submission@googlegroups.com with "DroneDay2025" in the subject line if you have questions.

 

 

Edmonton DroneDay 2025 Call for Artists

 https://forms.gle/KXjncMnAtyvUpyqM8

Hi!

We're looking for local and not-local drone music artists to play in Edmonton on May 24 , 2025  from 2pm to 10:30pm. We're looking for 30 minute to 1 hour sets.

Drone music is music with long tones, think the tubes on a bagpipe that the musician doesn't control, those are drones. Drone music is like that. Here's 6 hours of examples if you need a refresher on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDFcaXzo2sM Also see https://droneday.org/events.html

We'll be in person at the the Collins Studio Gallery 11741 94 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5G 1J1, just off 118 Ave surrounded by restaurants, galleries, grocery stores, and convenience stores.

It'll be from 2pm to 10:30pm on May 24th, 2025.

On April 2nd, 2025 we will look at the submissions and adjudicate who to invite to Drone Day. We reserve curatorial rights.

There will be a honorarium, it was $50 last year. This year's honorarium will be based on the door and venue costs.

 

If you want to play fill out this form:

 

 https://forms.gle/KXjncMnAtyvUpyqM8

Email us at beams-submission@googlegroups.com with "DroneDay2025" in the subject line if you have questions.

BEAMS Art's Birthday 2025!

 

BEAMS presents…
Art’s Birthday

 

Date: Friday, January 17, 2025
Time: 8:00 pm MST
Where: Collins Studio Gallery (11741 – 94 Street)
and https://www.twitch.tv/beamsdotca

 

One of the world’s most unusual celebrations of art is slated to take centre stage in the Alberta capital. Art’s Birthday Edmonton 2025, facilitated by the Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society, holds court Friday, Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. at Collins Studio Gallery (11741-94 Street).

 

The show will feature a wide range of Edmonton sound artists and experimental musician, many of whom have garnered international reputations for their work. Scheduled to play the event are Don Hill, Brothers of Sisters, James Parrott, Stephen Sereda, Kaunsel and II F Argon.

 

BEAMS has hosted this annual event in Edmonton since 2010, as part of a global tribute to art, an idea conceived by French surrealist Robert Filliou in 1963. He believed that a million years ago, art did not exist until a sponge was dropped into a pail of water, and picked his own birthday, Jan. 17, to celebrate the occasion. Charmed by the absurdity of the notion, artists, predominantly in Europe, have been celebrating Art’s Birthday ever since. A comprehensive background of the event and international listings are available on artsbirthday.net.

 

Admission to Art’s Birthday Edmonton 2025 is $10 for BEAMS members and $20 for non-members, although a BEAMS membership is included in the latter price.

 

The Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (BEAMS) is a non-profit society dedicated to the promotion and production of sound art, experimental music and new media. Its membership consists of professional musicians, composers and performance artists from diverse backgrounds driven to create a voice for sound orientated art in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

 

This event is sponsored by the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS). BEAMS thanks them for their support!

 

Media Contact:
Shawn Pinchbeck
President, BEAMS
info@beams.ca

 

 

BEAMS Art’s Birthday 2025 Call for live performances!

 

BEAMS Art’s Birthday 2025

Call for live performances!

Submission Deadline: January 6, 2025!

We are seeking submissions of live performances for the BEAMS Art’s Birthday celebration happening on January 17, 2025 at the Collins Studio Gallery at 11741-94 St, Edmonton.

Performances should be no longer than 20 min and represent the genres of electroacoustic music, experimental music, electronic music, sound art, noise, improvisation, sound experimentation or soundy performance art.

Send your proposals by January 6^th with the subject line “Art’s Bday 2025” to:

beams-submission@googlegroups.com

Art’s Birthday originated in 1963 when French surreal artist Robert Filliou declared that art didn’t exist until a million years ago when someone dropped a dry sponge into a pail of water. Choosing his own birthday of Jan. 17 to celebrate the event, Filliou proposed a public holiday, which has since been adopted by arts organizations and collectives in more than 20 nations worldwide. BEAMS has been hosting it yearly since 2010.

The Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (BEAMS) is a non-profit society dedicated to the promotion and production of sound art, experimental music and new media. Its membership consists of professional musicians, composers and performance artists from diverse backgrounds driven to create a voice for sound orientated art in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

This event is sponsored by the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS). BEAMS thanks them for their continued support!

Contact:

info@beams.ca

www.beams.ca

Together Apart V…an evening of audio wonderments

 

BEAMS presents…
Together Apart V…an evening of audio wonderments

Date: Saturday, November 23, 2024
Time: 8:00 pm MST
Where: https://www.twitch.tv/beamsdotca and your private parlour

Together Apart is an evening curated by composer Shawn Pinchbeck (CAN/EST) of sound and electroacoustic music artists from Canada, USA and the UK; presented by the Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (BEAMS). Each piece has been specially selected for this event to tickle your ears, lubricate your listening organs and open your third eye.

This year’s fantastical audio visual voyage will include works by: Derwen (CAN), Instant Places (CAN), Matthew Conroy (USA), Mutant Beatniks (UK), Telepaesants (CAN/SGP), Bleakhouse (UK), The Bugs (CAN), Don Hill (CAN), Post Horn (EST), gintas k (LTU) and Sahar Te (CAN). We will be broadcasting live from Chateau La Napoule, France.

Please join us for the live presentation or enjoy it on our Twitch channel afterwards at your leisure up to November 30th.

The Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (BEAMS) is a non-profit society dedicated to the promotion and production of sound art, experimental music and new media. Its membership consists of professional musicians, composers and performance artists from diverse backgrounds driven to create a voice for sound orientated art in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

This event is sponsored by the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS). BEAMS thanks them for their support!

OSPAC Open House with Juno award winners and BEAMS

What: OSPAC Openhouse!

When: Sept 27,28,29 but BEAMS is on Sept 29, 2024 at 1pm

Where: 8426 Gateway Blvd NW, Edmonton

The three-day Open House will feature four sessions dedicated to various musical genres:

Friday, Sep 27 - 8 pm to midnight

Blues to Rock
Hosted by Lionel Rault – iconic Edmonton musician, music historian, and CKUA on air personality.
Also featuring Ron Rault, Bill Hobson, David Aide, Dave Babcock, member of Cosmopoliatn Music Society's concert bands, and closing set by Punch Drunk Cabaret.

Saturday, Sep 28 – 1 pm to 5 pm

Celtic Folk
Hosted: Maria Dunn - Juno award winning singer songwriter.
Also featuring Terry McDade, Shannon Johnson, Jeremiah McDade, Debbie Houle, Sherryl Sewepagaham, and members of Cosmopolitan Music Society's chorus.

Saturday, Sep 28 – 8 pm to midnight

Hip Hop
Curated by Arlo Maverick and Hosted by: Bobby T - business leader, content creator, and social media guru.
Also featuring Darren Jordan, Dirt Gritie, KazMega, Touch, and closing set by Dirt Gritie & Band.

Sunday, Sep 29 – 1 pm to 5 pm

Electroacoustic & Experimental
Hosted by Dr. Shawn Pinchbeck - founding member of the Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society and PhD in electroacoustic music.

Also featuring: Clinker, Blipvert, k burwash, Instant Places, James Parrot, Caitlin Richards, J. Daniel Cramer,  members of Cosmopolitan Music Society's various ensembles and a closing set by Bordeaux!

This is a free event thanks to generous funding from the Edmonton Arts Council and the City of Edmonton.

Bar, concession, and food truck on site.

www.ospac.ca

Annual General Meeting

AGM June 24 Monday at 12 noon.

Come to this page just before noon to see a zoom or a jitsi.com link for the video conference AGM.

 https://meet.jit.si/moderated/4afbb495020bcc1f1ccaa38b1e3ec7dd87b13464a0e7b649861d1e53e9cc7fb1

BEAMS and AMASS sponsor Edmonton Noisefest 2024

 On August 17th 2024 Edmonton noisefest will happen again at the Aviary!

Checkout https://noisefest.ca/ for more details.

BEAMS Presents Drone Day 2024

Saturday May 25th, 2024, Idylwylde Community League, 3pm to midnight.

$10 for BEAMS members, and $10 for BEAMS memberships. Free for Idylwylde Community League members.

Time On	Project Name	Duration	Performance Description
15:00	m.o.a.i.n.	30 minutes	I will use some free software and Ableton live to improvise a live mixing variety of drones together for a complex dynamic of drone sound.
15:30	Brick Road	45 minutes	I will drone using pure drone and other continuous sounds with electronic and acoustic instruments.
16:15	Microenvironment	30 minutes	"Lost to time" An evolving layer of tension that slowly builds into a satisfying release.
16:45	Wayne Defehr	45 minutes	This piece weaves drone tones drawn from the sounds of the environment, such as my field recordings of the wind at the UA farm, and the North Saskatchewan R., along with the sounds of the weather sensors on the roof of the UA department of Geography, recorded with a JSON script and the API from a Weather Canada site.
17:30	Dinosaur Dragondrone	45 minutes	Building and maintaining an 'organic' feedback loop. Organic being not directly feeding the source signal back to itself...but relying on acoustic resonance and standing waves within the room to carry the sound.
18:15	Jared Epp	30 minutes	I plan to perform a new composition, that will be part structured and part improvised. It will be electronic based and may include some loops of found sound recordings.
18:45	James Parrott	1 hour	I plan to do a mix of improvised performance, plus a mix of field recordings and previous works.
19:45	Ghost Cars	1 hour	A longform piece made with guitar, keyboard, and samples.
20:45	Matt McKenzie	1 hour	Two or three compositions that explore ostinatos as a means of producing drones. Various synthesis techniques will be used including granular/sample-based.
21:45	Gary James Joynes / Clinker	1 hour	Modular Synthesizer Drone Set
22:45	Gray Hartley	30 minutes	Subject to change in the next 2 months but mainly just improvised guitar drones visually accompanied by the animated childhood trauma classic Watership Down
23:15	K.M. Toepfer	45 minutes	I plan to perform an improvised piece of sustained tones and shifting, reverberating drone-scapes created with feedback from home stereo equipment as the source material.

ddd

BEAMS Presents Drone Day 2024

 

For immediate release

April 28, 2024

BEAMS celebrates a decade of drone

EDMONTON—The Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society will commemorate National Drone Day, taking place Saturday, May 25, with an extensive live concert at Idylwylde Community Hall (8631-81 St.) starting at 3 pm. The event is expected to run until midnight.

Twelve artists from Edmonton and the surrounding region will perform sets varying in length from 30 minutes to an hour, performing drone music, often described as the taking the form of sustained sounds with a minimalist delivery. The repertoire of the acts playing that day (Brick Road, Wayne DeFehr, Dinosaur Dragondrone, Jared Epp, Ghost Cars, Gray Hartley, Gary James Joynes, Matt McKenzie, Microenvironment, m.o.a.i.n., James Parrott, and K.M. Toepfer) are slated to play a wide range of sounds from melodic tones to found-sound noise, which all fall under the requisites of what is considered drone.

The show takes place 10 years to the month of the first National Drone Day festivities, which first took place May 10, 2014. The event, first dreamed up by Marie LeBlanc Flanagan, co-founder of alternative music distributor Weird Canada, has become a national and annual occurrence ever since.

“Drone Day is a reclamation of the idea of a holiday, of a community celebration with no purpose beyond a shared interest in drone music, a community and a marked moment in time,” said LeBlanc Flanagan to Grid City Magazine in 2015.

Tickets to the Edmonton festivities of National Drone Day are $20, $10 for BEAMS members. The show is free to members of the Idylwylde Community League.

Media Contact:

Abram Hindle

info@beams.ca

 

 

Artist Spotlight

 Hi BEAMERS!

Every Friday we are going to be doing an artist spot light to help promote all the artists in our community.  If you want us to share your music/videos on our social media.  Send us a short bio and link to what you want shared.  This is going to be on going so there is no limit to how much you submit.  The more the merrier!  Make a list of all you would like to share along with the short bio and email your submissions to:

beams-submission@googlegroups.com

With the subject “Weekly Spotlight”  

Drone Day 2024 - Call for Performers

Hi!

We're looking for people who want to play 30 minute to 1 hour sets on Drone Day 2024, May 25th 2024.

Drone music is music with long tones, think the tubes on a bagpipe that the musician doesn't control, those are drones. Drone music is like that. Here's 6 hours of examples if you need a refresher on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDFcaXzo2sM

We'll be in person at the (probably) Idylwylde Community League, 8631 81 St NW, Edmonton, AB T6C 2W1.

It'll be from 2pm to 10pm on May 25th.

On April 20th, 2024 we will look at the submissions and adjudicate who to invite to Drone Day. We reserve curatorial rights.

Here's the form if you want to try to perform: https://forms.gle/GHiSega1u5SMacABA

 

 U.K. resident, multi-instrumentalist and improvisor Paul Morris brings his act Argument Club over to this side of the pond to his old stomping grounds of Edmonton for a one-night engagement presented by the Boreal Electroacoustic Music Society (BEAMS). Morris was a regular live performer and recording artist,  before absconding to England, where he continues to make his own brand of audio wizardry. He’s also recognized by the likes of Rochester, NY-based WAYO-FM as one of the world’s best improvisors. Also performing will be k burwash, Skrunt Skrunt, and Shawn Pinchbeck.

Art's Birthday 2024

Jan 20th 8pm and Jan 20th 2pm for Open Mic

Edmonton to join the world for a weird arts celebration

The Boreal Electroaoustic Music Society (BEAMS) will celebrate Art’s Birthday, one of the world’s most unusual celebrations of art. The event, Art’s Birthday Edmonton 2024, takes place Saturday, Jan. 20 at 8 p.m. at Idylwylde Community League (8631-81 Street). 

The show will feature a wide range of Edmonton sound artists and experimental musicians, many of whom have garnered international reputations for their work. Slated to play are James Parrott, Wayne DeFehr, Cave To Hades, Shawn Pinchbeck, Skrunt Skrunt, XiME, and The Alt-Wrong Orchestra.

BEAMS has hosted this annual event in Edmonton since 2010, as part of a global tribute to art, an idea conceived by French surrealist Robert Filliou in 1963. He believed that a million years ago, art did not exist until a sponge was dropped into a pail of water, and picked his own birthday, Jan. 17, to celebrate the occasion. Charmed by the absurdity of the notion, artists, predominantly in Europe, have been celebrating Art’s Birthday ever since. A comprehensive background of the event and international listings are available on artsbirthday.net .

A free open mic event hosted by the Idylwylde Community League also takes place that day at 2 p.m. Admission to Art’s Birthday is free to Idylwylde Community League members, $10 to BEAMS members, $20 to non-members, with a BEAMS membership to newcomers built into the price.

 

Art’s birthday call for performers

 Call for live performances!

Submission deadline: Saturday, January 6 2024

Hi BEAMERS!

Art's Birthday is just around the corner and we are looking for live performers. This year's art's birthday will be held in person live at the Idylwyle community league hall (8631 81 St NW, Edmonton, AB).

It is going to be a full day of live music. The first half of the day will be an open mic for Idylwylde community members. The second half will be BEAMS experimental music performances. There are no specifics for the performances we are looking for. Just your creative selves doing what you love in the name of art! Performances will be scheduled for 20 minutes. This event is sponsored by AMAAS and BEAMS performers will be compensated.

PLEASE SUBMIT TO:

beams-submission@googlegroups.com

With the subject "Art's Bday 2024"