Eve Egoyan & Mauricio Pauly — Hopeful Monster

Out: October 6th, 2023 on No Hay Discos — NHD 004 (CD/DL)
Genres: Improvised Music, Electroacoustic
RIYL: Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto, AMM, Craig Taborn, Agustí Fernández

MAURICIO PAULY | EVE EGOYAN
NO HAY DISCOS | NO HAY BANDA

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “HEIGHT” HERE

The powerful music found on Hopeful Monster, the forthcoming partnership between acclaimed Toronto-based pianist Eve Egoyan and Costa Rican-born, British composer-musician Mauricio Pauly (who now lives and works in Vancouver), springs directly from the close-knit dynamic that established itself in their earliest music-making.

Their collaboration began in 2018 when Pauly paid a visit to Egoyan’s Toronto studio. There was an uncanny immediacy that emerged throughout this initial improvisation session. The mutual sense of trust, curiosity, and reciprocity was so potent that it carried them through four years of remote audio-file-swapping until their subsequent encounter. The occasion of this second meeting: recording this very album.

This album—Egoyan’s recorded debut as an improviser—is audibly propelled by their spontaneous interaction. Their exchanges feel improvised inasmuch as they radiate urgency and wonder, however they’re also grounded—deeply so—in a distinctive joint vision. It’s also the first disc to document Egoyan’s augmented piano, a unique amalgam of several different technologies that she developed to extend the piano’s sonic scope.

Meanwhile Pauly performs on battery of electronic tools as well as idiosyncratic acoustic instruments ranging from a wooden plank to a repurposed autoharp. Throughout the album, he carefully articulates commentary on the material furnished by Egoyan, while crafting his own nuanced auditory reality.

This fall, the duo will be performing across Canada to support the release of Hopeful Monster with dates at University of Victoria (Victoria, BC) on October 29, 2023; Music on Main’s Modulus Festival (Vancouver, BC) on November 4, 2023; The Music Gallery (Toronto, ON) on November 11, 2023 and in Montréal, QC (presented by NO HAY BANDA) on November 13, 2023.

COVERAGE:
Year-end — Nick Ostrum’s Top 10 of 2023, Freejazzblog
Year-end/ Podcast — The Moderns, Ep. 295: 23 favourites from 2023
List — Upcoming Releases, Tinnitist
List — Night After Night / For The Record (August 18, 2023)
List — Friday Five, The Moderns (October 6, 2023)
Newsletter/ Live mention — Michael Barclay, Airplane on the Highway (October 19, 2023)
Newsletter/ Live mention — Michael Barclay, Airplane on the Highway (October 26, 2023)
Newsletter — CMC Ontario E-Blast (November 17, 2023)
News — African Paper
Article — Alexander Varty, In Hopeful Monster, Eve Egoyan and Mauricio Pauly create eerie abstraction at Music on Main’s Modulus Festival, Stir
Article — Anabella Klann Harrington, Hopeful Monster at Modulus Festival – An experience in experimentation, The / La Source
Article — Hopeful Monster, An Imaginative, Innovative Soundscape, Simon Fraser University
Mention — Stuart Derdeyn, Music on Main’s Modulus Festival celebrates 12 years of contemporary works, Vancouver Sun
Round-up — Peter Margasak, The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, October 2023, Bandcamp Daily
Round-up — The Number of 5-Heart Records in October was 44, OutsideLeft
Round-up — Frank P. Eckert, Motherboard: Dezember 2023, Groove.de
Review — Dionys, Inactuelles
Review — Frédéric Cardin, PanM360
Review — Bill Meyer, Dusted
Review — Jan Granlie, salt peanuts*
Review — Ken Waxman, Musicworks
Review — Nitestylez.de
Review — Jazz-Fun
Review — Andrew Timar, The WholeNote
Review — David Reed, Belleville Intelligencer
Review — Will Chernoff, Rhythm Changes
Track Review — Toon Traveler, OutsideLeft
Track Review — Michael Gutierrez, Hump Day News
Podcast/ Roundup — Different Noises #20
Podcast — The Moderns, Episode 283
Podcast — Free Form Freakout, FFFoxy Podcast #231
Chart/ Radio — CJSW October Top 30
Chart/ Radio — CJSW Top 30 (October 24, 2023)
Chart/ Radio — CJSW Top 10 Experimental/ Contemporary Classical (October 24, 2023)
Chart/ Radio — CJSW Top 30 (October 19, 2023)
Chart/ Radio — CJSW Top 10 — Experimental / Contemporary Classical (October 19, 2023)
Radio — Strength Through Failure With Fabio, WFMU (April 2, 2024)
Radio — Polyglot with Jesse Dorris, WFMU (April 2, 2024)
Radio — Sunrise Lamentations with Jeremiah, WFMU (March 30, 2024)
Radio — Radioactivity with Abby from Mars, WFMU (March 24, 2024)
Radio — Currents With Brian D, WFMU (March 23, 2024)
Radio — Sunrise Lamentations with Jeremiah, WFMU (February 24, 2024)
Radio — Liminal Scores, CJSW (March 20, 2024)
Radio — Music For A While, CKCU (February 12, 2024)
Radio — Serious Moonlight Sonatas with Carol, WFMU (February 4, 2024)
Radio — Sunrise Lamentations with Jeremiah, WFMU (February 3, 2024)
Radio — Sunrise Lamentations with Jeremiah, WFMU (January 27, 2024)
Radio — Motte and Bailey, CJSW (January 24, 2024)
Radio — Vocal Cords, CJSW (January 22, 2024)
Radio — Sunrise Lamentations with Jeremiah, WFMU (January 20, 2024)
Radio — Scott Williams, WFMU (January 18, 2024)
Radio — Exploding Head Movies, CITR (January 17, 2024)
Radio — The Rites of Spring, CKCU (January 16, 2024)
Radio — The Floating Head of Zsa Zsa, WRUV (January 9, 2024)
Radio — Pushing The Envelope, WHUS (January 6, 2024)
Radio — JA in the AM with John Allen, WFMU (January 5, 2024)
Radio — Spirals, CJSW (January 2, 2024)
Radio — Sunrise Lamentations with Jeremiah, WFMU (December 30, 2023)
Radio — Noise, CJSW (December 28, 2023)
Radio — Timbre, Radio Luz (December 21, 2023)
Radio — The Present Edge, KGNU (December 18, 2023)
Radio — Jazz Disturbance, Taint Radio (December 16, 2023)
Radio — Inflatable Squirrel Carcass, WFMU (December 16, 2023)
Radio — KUBU (December 7, 2023)
Radio — League of Musical Detectorists, KUBU (December 6, 2023)
Radio — Corporate Standardized Programming, KBOO (November 28, 2023)
Radio — Utility Fog, FBI Radio (November 19, 2023)
Radio — Noise, CJSW (November 16, 2023)
Radio — Biesentales #73 – During quakes (w/ jayrope), Cashmere Radio (November 15, 2023)
Radio — Noise, CJSW (November 9, 2023)
Radio — Exploding Head Movies, CITR (November 6, 2023)
Radio — The Present Edge, KGNU (November 6, 2023)
Radio — Outside the Lines, CJSW (November 6, 2023)
Radio — Freeness, BBC Radio 3 (November 5, 2023)
Radio — Vocal Cords, CJSW (October 30, 2023)
Radio — Icarus.FM (October 30, 2023)
Radio — In The Margin Of The Other, WMBR (October 25, 2023)
Radio / Interview — Contemporary Classical, WRUU (October 24, 2023)
Radio — Noise, CJSW (October 19, 2023)
Radio — Liminal Scores, CJSW (October 18, 2023)
Radio — Jazz Disturbance, Taint Radio (October 14, 2023)
Radio — Noise, CJSW (October 12, 2023)
Radio — Alternative To What?, CJSW (October 12, 2023)
Radio — Liminal Scores, CJSW (October 11, 2023)
Radio — Humanoid Radio, CFRU (October 10, 2023)
Radio — The Floating Heading of Zsa Zsa, WRUV (October 10, 2023)
Radio — Coast to Coast to Coast, CFUV (October 10, 2023)
Radio — Corporate Standardized Programming, KBOO (October 10, 2023)
Radio — Breaking The Tethers, CJSW (October 9, 2023)
Radio — Pushing The Envelope, WHUS (October 7, 2023)
Radio — The Luminous Chord, KBRP (October 5, 2023)
Radio — Elysian Fields, KXCI (September 29, 2023)
Radio — Icarus.FM (September 29, 2023)
Radio — Humanoid Radio, CFRU (September 26, 2023)
Radio — The Transmitter Down, CRMK (September 22, 2023)
Radio — Humanoid Radio, CFRU (September 19, 2023)
Radio — 80lb. Cardstock 264: Hidden Pinto, X-Ray FM (September 12, 2023)
Radio — Humanoid Radio, CFRU (September 12, 2023)
Radio — Humanoid Radio, CFRU (September 5, 2023)
Radio — Other Aspects, WAYO (September 3, 2023)
Radio — Something Else, KBGA (August 30, 2023)
Radio — Electric Sense, CIUT (August 30, 2023)
Radio — Other Aspects, WAYO (August 27, 2023)
Radio — Corporate Standardized Programming, KBOO (August 22, 2023)
Radio — Other Aspects, WAYO (August 20, 2023)
Radio — Parkdale Pirate Radio (August 17, 2023)