Standing with the weird and underrepresented since 2012

Mood Ring Vol II

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<a href="https://debaser-releases.bandcamp.com/album/mood-ring-vol-2">Mood Ring, Vol. 2 by Various Artists</a>

Mood Ring Vol 2 is a curated mixtape and interactive web project presented by Debaser.

The web project, designed to be an entry point to the listening experience and a playful way to engage with the music on the compilation, guides you to one of the eight tracks in the collection.

Each turn at Mood Ring Vol. 2 allows you to discover new paths and results depending on how you respond to it.

“The world’s tiniest and most introspective music recommendation engine.”

Read about the making of Mood Ring Vol 2 on Apt613

Artists

Featured

Bucko Art Machine

Bucko Art Machine is a new project by Ottawa-based electronic musician Chris Binkowski (aka Bucko) in collaboration with Nick Schofield and an evolving collective of artists and musicians. BAM makes groove-based music incorporating live improvisation. Central to their work is the idea of music as a dynamic way to express oneself and connect with people. They are currently working on their debut album, planned for release in late 2021.

Web | Instagram | Facebook | Patreon

Century Egg

Century Egg is a colourful band boasting a diverse range of influences and artistic traditions. Refreshingly modern and fun music about the importance of chosen family, staying together and the love of daydreaming and eating wonderful food.

Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify

Deidre

Native Montreal artist Deidre focuses her work through the lens of performance, electronic soundscapes, and avant-pop music production. Her practice reveals thoughts on her relationship to her inner self, mental health, and physical identity. Her latest EP OPAL is a study in chaotic, textural bliss and romanticism via electro-acoustic sound.

Bandcamp | Instagram | Spotify

Klapshmock!

Formed in the summer of 2018 and emerging from the sludge of the Ottawa river, Klapshmock! fuses art, music, theatre, and satire to create a chaotic mess. Klapshmock! is about being nonsensical and holding everything together with E-tape. Transmitting ideas and spewing them out. In simplest terms, Klapshmock! is an expression of electro jazz-fusion. Going deeper, the music of Klapshmock! is a mix of 70s and 80s electronic music based on toasty old synths, moldy drum machines, crunchy low-bit samples, all layered on juicy jazz chords and brought to you by Krautrock, industrial, minimal wave, space disco, and progressive rock.

Bandcamp | Facebook

Mas Aya

Mas Aya is the solo project of Brandon Miguel Valdivia. A drummer known for improvisatory work with Not the Wind Not the Flag; composition in theatre and dance; and recording with artists such as U.S.Girls, Tribe Called Red, Jeremy Dutcher and Lido Pimienta. Mas Aya aims to meld music from various parts of the world and from different periods of time: from Indonesia to Cuba, from shamanic and ritualistic musical practices to contemporary popular music styles. Repetition, patience and contemplation play with dance, intensity and celebration creating a music from nowhere in particular and from everywhere, from neither here nor there. Flutes, drums, seeds, bells, synths, air, water.

Bandcamp | Instagram

Melody McKiver & Thomas Goguelin

Melody McKiver is a musician and composer from Sioux Lookout, Treaty #3 / Northwestern Ontario. Melody’s musical work integrates electronics with Western classical music to shape a new genre of Anishinaabe compositions. Melody was invited to the Berlinale Talents Sound Studio as a music and composition mentor for the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival. Thomas Goguelin is a member of the group dscrd (a.k.a “Discordance”), an electronic music quintet which made its first steps in the Parisian suburbs and kept resolutely focused on live performance and improvisation. Melody and Thomas met through the Sound Studio of Berlinale Talents in February 2020. This improvisation was recorded at TRIXX Studios in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

Orchidae

Yolande Laroche, a Franco-Taiwanese Canadian artist based in Ottawa/Hull, reflects on her hyphenated identity, life and death, and themes of alienation in her debut solo project under the pseudonym Orchidae. Soft, hypnotic melodies and mantras intertwine with minimal yet meaningful, at-times psychedelic orchestration. She is currently recording a full length album set to release in 2021. As a classically trained clarinetist and a touring/session musician, Yolande is a core member of art-rock band Pony Girl and ambient chamber project mal/aimé. She has also worked with artists such as Rayannah, Nick Schofield, Luka Kuplowski, Keturah, Cedric Noel, and several others.

Instagram | Facebook

SlowPitchSound

SlowPitchSound (Cheldon Paterson) is an experimental artist with over 20 years of experience in live composition and multi-disciplinary performance. With a passion for depth and detail in his work, he is heavily inspired by environmental awareness and dystopian sci-fi. His music is like the universe - indefinable, and forever expanding. A master turntablist, seasoned educator, and visionary artist, SlowPitchSound’s wide versatility has launched him fervidly into the worlds of both classical and contemporary music. His hypnotizing performances have been featured at world-renowned electronic festivals such as Mutek (Montreal, Canada), Clandestino (Göteborg, Sweden), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht, Netherlands) as well as major theatres, museums, and other unique spaces.

Web | Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify

Creators

Mood Ring Creators

Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan

Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan is an artist working in the playful spaces between people, especially related to connection, expression and community. Marie builds playful installations, experimental video games, and cooperative experiences and has been delighted to show work all over the world, including in Germany, Brasil, South Africa, The Netherlands, Ukraine, England, and the USA.

Marie was recently the Artist in Residence at the NYU Game Center. Previously Marie worked on experience design with A MAZE. Berlin and the School of Machines, Making, and Make-Believe. Marie founded Wyrd Arts Initiatives (https://wyrdartsinitiatives.org) a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to encouraging, documenting, and connecting creative expression across Canada and founded Drone Day an international day for the celebration of experimental music and communities.

Robin Richardson-Dupuis

Robin Richardson-Dupuis is an illustrator and designer based between Ontario and Nova Scotia. Having grown up in Austin, Texas, living in Ottawa and Toronto, and currently pursuing a BDes from NSCAD is Halifax, Nova Scotia, Robin is interested in the connection between place, identity, and memory. They sustain both a personal art practice focused on self-expression through illustration and printmaking, and a freelance graphic design practice centred on supporting community through design.

Rachel Weldon

Rachel Weldon is a music curator and creative producer. She is director of Debaser, music programmer for artist-run centre and venue SAW, and a freelance producer and consultant. She has curated and produced programming for the City of Ottawa, SAW, Digital Arts Resource Centre (fka SAW Video), Ottawa International Animation Festival, POP Montreal, MEGAPHONO, and more. Rachel has been an active member of the community independent media community since 2012, and is currently part of the collective that creates Heavy Friends Saturday nights on CKCU. She sits on the board of Debaser and EverySeeker festival (Halifax). Rachel lives and works on Algonquin territory (so-called Ottawa/Hull).

Emily McQuarrie

Emily McQuarrie is a musician and natural farmer based in rural Quebec who has toured internationally with her band DJ Smoke Weed Guy, and as a supporting member of Legal Vertigo. Emily has contributed to the arts through her work in community radio, as volunteer coordinator of Weird Canada, through her tape label Fan Club Records, and as managing director of Debaser. Emily currently works as finance director for the climate action planning co-op SSG, and sits on Debaser's board of directors.

This project was created on the unsurrendered territories of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg (Odàwàng), Kanien’kehá:ka (Tiohtià:ke), and Mi’kmaq (K’jipuktuk). Learn more and support

Mood Ring Vol 2 was mastered by Philip Shaw Bova

Special thanks to Aaron Levin, Julia Evans, Rob Coslett, Deirdre Morrison and Philippe Charbonneau.

Thank you to our playtesters: Barış Bilgen, Conor Byron, Matt Buller, Alexandra Cárdenas, B Cavello, Ellen Chang-Richardson, Cynthia Cheng, Willow Cioppa, Tiffany Conroy, Heather D’Alessio, Paloma Dawkins, Evelyne Drouin, David Ferris, Ellen Flanagan, Eileen Mary Holowka, Lynn Hughes, Calum Jeacle, Jamie Kronick, Joel LeBlanc, Justine Lera, Gemma Leslie, August Luhrs, Jim Munroe, Alex Noreau, Laura Palavecino, Lorenzo Pilia, Linsey Raymaekers, Joni Sadler, Maria Saridaki, Alexandre Saunier, Prem Sooriyakumar, Ida Toft, Steven Tu, John Wanamaker, Eliza Weldon, Raphaëll X.

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