Over the past few years, Toronto electroacoustic harpist and film composer Grace Scheele has emerged as a distinct voice within the Canadian landscape, interweaving an eclectic mix of cassette sampling and electronic effects with a thinly-veiled irreverence towards the pedal harp’s traditional sound.

The landings EP was originally conceived as a live performance for the Aga Khan Museum’s Moon Landing Festival in July 2019, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. 

The second track on her seven song EP, “pomposity,” is an invitation to be curious, to wonder. To reflect on our spaceward ambitions and explorative nature as humans. Within the context of the Space Age, the moon landing was presented as a final frontier for innovation and exploration. “pomposity” taps into the American cultural narrative of the pioneering nature of manifest destiny as expressed in 1962 with President John F. Kennedy’s speech “Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort”, sampled halfway through the track. 

With this occasion in mind, Grace envisioned the journey of the astronauts on the Apollo 11 Mission. She had always been drawn to liminal spaces, the in-betweens where you can’t really do much but pass time as you’re waiting for an arrival or departure. 

The Apollo 11 Mission embraces that liminality; there is the overarching journey between here and there, but there’s also 48 minutes of radio silence in each lunar orbit and the 6 day journey in-between. Time spent separate, and in a way to us earthbound folks, every time the astronaut’s communication was publicly broadcast it was that slight peek into Schrödinger’s box to see what the cat’s up to.

Years later after her performance at the Moon Landing Festival, Grace had the opportunity to record the performance at Silver Street Recording, which became the landings EP. 

“I really wanted to stay true to the improvisatory nature of the performance, so I decided to limit myself to one-shot improvised recordings, with no overdubs, editing, or splicing,” explains Grace. “Each take was unique, but shared the common thread of sample choice, instrument, and electronic effects to some extent. Thankfully it only took a few takes for me to feel like we ‘had’ it, with the second take becoming the EP itself.”

Universal Honey has been a mainstay in Canada’s music scene, with seven albums and numerous featured tracks in movies and television under their belt.

Formed by platinum recording artists Johnny Sinclair and Leslie Stanwyck after playing in the band The Pursuit of Happiness, Sinclair and Stanwyck’s songwriting partnership has spanned across three decades, 100+ tracks and hundreds of gigs across North America.

2023 marks their 30th anniversary and brings Dandelion, referenced by the duo as a remarkably resilient flower. Co-produced with Dan Marfisi, this is their first Universal Honey album in 18 years. Newcomers and old fans alike will enjoy its fresh, modern sound. Click here to stream Dandelion.

Love and loneliness swirl in the focus track “Time Blindness,” written around the time of the passing of musician Al Stanwyck, Leslie’s father. Thinking of his life and our own mortality, she tapped into the sweetness of the memories and the sadness of time being gone.

Folk duo, Crowes Pasture, have penned a new song which addresses finding commonalities within American society. 

The Bostonians’ touring has led them to tour up and down the East Coast, granting them insights into the political perspectives of a wide array of individuals.

The plaintive and acoustic “Agree On” is what the duo considers to be a “prayer that we will be able to find common ground in a deeply divided democracy.”

“We are struck by how much people actually have in common as parents, children, workers, Americans, brothers and sisters.

For this country to move forward in a positive way, we need to acknowledge and respect differences, but we also need to appreciate the humanity that exists in everyone.”