Novel noise

The members of the Quasar Quartet must get along.

The prestigious Montreal-based saxophone ensemble has been together more than 30 years — no quiet personnel swaps, no loud exodus of unhappy members in the way of so many veteran pop groups.

Instead, they’ve been a driving force behind contemporary Canadian art music. The decorated virtuosos have commissioned and premièred more than 200 works and performed all over the world.

“They are as delightful and generous as individuals, as they are bold and brilliant as musicians,” says Gordon Fitzell, artistic director of GroundSwell, presents contemporary music and performance to local audiences.

Quasar are guest artists at Vestigial Structures, GroundSwell’s third 2025-26 season concert program this week. The group is set to perform works by composers from Lithuania, Scotland, Japan and Canada — including by Fitzell and his colleague at the University of Manitoba’s music department, Örjan Sandred. (Note: the free Wednesday show features three pieces and some different repertoire than the Thursday concert, where audiences will hear six pieces.)

Thirty years at the forefront of classical music means witnessing a lot of musical history. Yet, like much of contemporary Canadian classical, Quasar is in an avant-garde tradition originating in early 20th-century European modernism: they’re experimental, frequently dissonant and interested in technology and complexity.

So if the avant-garde prizes novelty, what’s new about today’s avant-garde?

“I would say that the avant-garde is an exciting place to be right now because the democratization of the internet and the global nature of what so many of us do in various disciplines,” Fitzell says.

“It’s very acceptable within so-called avant-garde or classical music to embrace elements of pop culture.”

This is in contrast with earlier avant-gardes, which saw themselves at odds with pop culture.

Fitzell highlights the inclusion of Zomby Woof, a work by late prog-rocker Frank Zappa, in Wednesday’s concert. A new piece, called Super Colliders II, by Japanese-Canadian composer Takuto Fukuda, winner of GroundSwell’s 2025 National Emerging Composers Competition, will also be performed both nights.

“That piece is quite fun. It’s essentially a video game piece where the four performers are watching the screen and competing against one another,” Fitzell says.

This isn’t the first time Fukuda has had musicians fire up video-game controllers in one of his pieces. The Montreal composer is interested in “gamification,” or importing video-game interactivity into performances, as a way of enhancing “liveness.” In this, Fukuda resists the knee-jerk association between computers in music and a lack of spontaneity.

Fitzell, a music professor at the University of Manitoba, is also no stranger to bringing pixels and screens into his creative practice — including through XIE, the eXperimental Improv Ensemble, which he founded and directs, known for its wild multimedia performances.

The composer, who describes other’s works on the Vestigial Structures’ program before turning to his own, has written a piece for Thursday’s concert with a decidedly internet overtone entitled Liminal Spaces.

The name refers to an internet trend, which has inspired several video games, dedicated to documenting empty “liminal” spaces — hotel hallways, abandoned buildings and empty theatres during the pandemic — that evoke spooky feelings.

“It’s written for, of course, saxophone quartet, but also surround-sound and a very active video component with various areas of the screen lighting up and corresponding to the audio throughout,” says Fitzell.

“I also have a modest element of theatre as well because each of the four players has with them one iconic device from the 20th century, so that brings back, brings an element of nostalgia that corresponds to the liminal spaces.”

“It’s very acceptable within so-called avant-garde or classical music to embrace elements of pop culture.”

While video games and film can be experimental places for music, the internet has proved effective at conjuring the endless sense of newness early modernists craved.

Among the six pieces performed at Vestigial Structures is Cities, a new piece written and performed by students of Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau with Brady Gill conducting.

“(The students) have an opportunity to write, not only for themselves, but for the seasoned professionals as well. It’ll be a great opportunity to hear emerging and experienced players performing all together,” says Fitzell, who mentions that the concert’s artists also offer educational activities at the University of Manitoba in the days surrounding the shows.

For an organization devoted to the “new” while also signalling toward older modernisms, these are full circle moments encouraging collaboration among musicians across generations and musical languages.

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