The River Peace is large-scale public participatory art installation by Thomas + Guinevere with the collaboration of composer John McDowell and presented by The Historic Distillery District in partnership with Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010 and Le Labo. Saturday, October 2nd, 6:57pm to Sunrise.

The music, composed and directed by John McDowell, will be based on the principals of Indian Raga. Using this as a basis, but adapting to Western genres, musicians will collaborate on the workings and nuances of particular themes, memorize several brief segments and phrases and collaborate on their playing.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s concept and scope of Satyagraha, or non-violent resistance, The River Peace is a mass participatory sculptural movement and sound performance installation; a giant metaphoric river where the content is not water, but a mass human meditation and expression of peace.

It will take the form of a 1,500-foot long luminescent sculpture, stretching around and through the historic laneways in Toronto’s Distillery Historic District, which you are invited to help carry and move as a meditative expression while musicians and dancers create a mass orchestral and choreographic illusion of a river in constant flow – with everyone’s cell phones providing the installation’s luminosity.

The sculpture is made-up of 150 – 12ft light-weight telescopic poles/masts. Mallory Industries who make the poles, were also kind enough to cut and provide a longer 30″ version of a yard which will be attached to the top of the pole and to which will be secured (grommeted) the 1500 ft length of bubble-wrap through which the light from the public’s cell-phones will shine.

As the sculpture moves through The Distillery, an aerial perspective of The River Peace will be captured on video and projected onto the walls of Mill Street Rack House (a collaboration with Luminad and Rattail Films.)

(If you have a QR (Quick Response) reader installed on your phone, you can turn it into colour-shifting lighting instrument. A PDF menu of QR Codes will be available for download at www.thomasandguinevere.com starting September 30, so you can practice. The QR menu colour sequences will also be passed out on Nuit Blanche as well. But if if you can’t scan the codes, simple cell phone light is totally accepted.)

To see more details on how to participate or volunteer, please visit www.thomasandguinevere.com or  email TheRiverPeace@gmail.com

New York’s Threefifty Duo has won a coveted space in CME Artist Services fall tour (Sep. 23 – Oct. 1) and will also be featured at the Lancaster Music Festival, October 8-10.

Now in its tenth consecutive year of putting on international showcases of original music spanning a multitude of genres, CME Artist Services presents two acts for their latest roots tour of some of the UK’s best small independent music venues. From Thursday Sept. 23rd through Sun. Oct. 1st the vocal and keyboard talent of precocious Vancouver based jazz artist Ali Milner, a 19-year-old from Canada is making her mark on the indie/jazz charts will be matched by New York’s award winning contemporary classical pair Threefifty Duo.

TOUR (all shows 9pm to 11pm unless otherwise stated):

Thur. 23rd Sept. White Hart (Atworth, SN12 8JR, 01225 702274)

Fri 24th Sept. Palladium Club (Bideford, EX39 2DE, 01237 478860)

Sat 25th Sept. Patriots MC (Crumlin, NP 114 PT, 01495 247178)

Sun 26th Sept (4pm) Coopers Arms (Pewsey, SN9 5BL, 01672 562495)

Mon 27th Sept. The Bell (Bath, BA1 5BW, 01225 460426)

Tues 28th Sept. The Sun (Lancaster, LA1 1ET, 01524 66006)

Thur 30th Sept. Penny Street Bridge Hotel (LA1 1XT, 01524 599 900)

Fri 1st Oct. Aspinall Arms (Mitton, BB7 9PQ, 01254 826223)

October 8-10 – see Lancaster Music Festival Schedule

Gemini & Scorpio present: The Lost Circus (circus meets dark cabaret with a steampunk twist)

Sat, July 31, 11:59pm-4am, $15 w/RSVP; $20 without
Littlefield, 622 Degraw, Gowanus, BK
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The Circus is said to have started in ancient Egypt when the court entertainers of an immortal Pharaoh escaped their slavery under a midnight moon. They have traveled the globe for centuries, gathering talent from every great empire as the empire itself begins to crumble: Istanbul, Saint Petersburg, London, Berlin…and now they have made it across the sea.

At the stroke of midnight, discover a circus long lost. With music from times gone by or times that never were: dark string fusion by Brooklyn’s own Copal, and bohemian cabaret in 13 languages by Vagabond Opera – our special guests from Portland, OR. The circus unfolds to the bands and in between: mind-bending contortion by Jonathan Nosan, aerial dance by Madeline Hoak; tribal fusion bellydance by Lauren Robbiani; fire & gorgeousness by Ali Luminescent; gypsy fortunetelling by Kai Altair; an original installation & performance by artist (and Minsky Sister) Kristen Rhea van Liew. Beautiful costumed creatures perform feats of fire in the courtyard. Dusty circus visuals set the mood. DJ sophybot fascinates your ears with a renegade circus tent soundtrack. With your ever-dapper host, steampunk author G.D. Falksen. Plus photo-op custom art installation with works by Molly Crabapple and Kathleen Green. And a few surprise guests we can’t mention.

Dress code (required): dark cabaret, traveling circus, steampunk Victorian, Edward Gorey, Tim Burton, Mad Max, City of Lost Children.