Ida Toninato
We Become Giants
Montréal-based saxophonist, composer and improviser Ida Toninato has an ear for the unknown and a history of exploring reverberant spaces. She came to the Tank in September, 2018, to make this album, We Become Giants, which was beautifully post-produced at Studio Makina in Montréal by sound artist Blaise Borboën-Léonard.
For the title track, she plays her bass sax and the Tank’s titanium bell, made from an Apollo mission oxygen tank. For the full power of the bell, which sounds for up to three minutes, as well as the rush of the wind over the Tank, listen with headphones.
We Become Giants was released this year on the Dragon’s eye Recordings, a Los Angeles-based label curated by Yann Novak. “Powerful sonic ideas have stemmed from the magnificent reverberation of the Tank, a former water cistern located in the high desert, its magical vibe,” Ida notes. Exclaim! magazine called the record “a marvel of technique and emotion, of patience and careful post-production, combining long near-silences with beautiful and terrifying reverberant tones that multiply in fractal form, each detail as rich and intense as its source.”
Buy the album here.
Ida Toninato develops strong bonds, artistic partnerships with the uncommon acoustics of reverberant spaces. After years of playing contemporary music with various collaborators, she dove headfirst into her own daring musical intuitions with her debut full-length record Strangeness is gratitude, released on Kohlenstoff Records in April 2016. The album planted her firmly in the underground experimental scene and was received enthusiastically by critics, artists and a growing fanbase. She has been developing her work since then in residencies across the globe, from Brazil (Goethe Institut, Salvador de Bahia) to Germany (Hellerau center for the arts) to Rangely, Colorado, where she recorded We Become Giants.
In addition to her solo compositions, Toninato performs with viola d’amore player and singer-songwriter Jennifer Thiessen. Their album The Space Between Us, on Ambiances Magnétiques, was nominated for a JUNO Award as Instrumental Album of the Year and for a Prix Opus. Ida also writes and performs actively with laptop musician Ana Dall’Ara-Majek as Jane/KIN, creating performances that play with spatialisation and improvisation. Toninato tours worldwide and also likes to share her hometown Montréal stages with its great music community.