We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Bestiaries

by Bekah Simms

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $6 CAD  or more

     

1.
Foreverdark 10:51
2.
from Void 12:18
3.

about

FOR CD/ LP PRE-ORDERS VISIT: centrediscs.bandcamp.com/album/bestiaries

For the past decade, award-winning Canadian composer BEKAH SIMMS has been carefully crafting an auditory universe that is hers alone. Simms' rich, brilliant music offers the perfect paradox for the present moment: it's at once totally accessible and yet completely uncompromising. It's music that takes a strange enough route through what has now become familiar topography, that it leaves the listener utterly bewildered. BESTIARIES displays her bold imagination on a far wider canvas than either of her previous outings. Featuring chamber orchestral forces, and, on two pieces, amplified solo parts plus vivid real-time electronic environments, the recording is full of movement, detail, and wildly contrasting hues, all of which churn together into something at once lyrical and violent, atmospheric, and foreboding.

Artists featured on Bestiaries include the cellist AMAHL ARULANANDAM, soprano CHARLOTTE MUNDY, the CRYPTID ENSEMBLE with BRIAN CURRENT, and the ENSEMBLE CONTEMPORAIN DE MONTRÉAL (ECM+) with VÉRONIQUE LACROIX.

BEKAH SIMMS hails from St. John's, Newfoundland and is currently based in Glasgow, Scotland after nine years living and working in Toronto. Her music has been widely performed across North America and Europe. She has been commissioned by some of the top interpreters of contemporary music in both Canada and internationally, such as Crash Ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Esprit Orchestra, Continuum Contemporary Music, Ensemble Télémaque, Ensemble Paramirabo, and But What About?

She has been the recipient of over 30 awards and prizes, including the 2019 Barlow Prize, two SOCAN Foundation Young Composer Awards, and the 2017 Toronto Emerging Composer Award. She was nominated for the prestigious Gaudeamus Award in 2022, and two of her works from her debut album impurity chains (Centrediscs, 2018) were nominated in both 2019 and 2020 for the JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year. Her music has thrice been included in the Canadian Section's official submission to World Music Days (2016, 2019, & 2021), and in 2016 the CBC included her among their annual 30 hot classical musicians under 30. Simms is a Lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, following previous academic positions at the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario.

credits

released October 28, 2022

1. Foreverdark
for amplified violoncello soloist and chamber orchestra with live electronics. Amahl Arulanandam solo cello, Cryptid Ensemble, Brian Current conductor.

2. from Void
for chamber ensemble. Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (ECM+), Véronique Lacroix, artistic director and conductor.

3. Bestiary I & II
for amplified soprano and chamber orchestra with live electronics. Charlotte Mundy soprano, Cryptid Ensemble, Brian Current conductor.

Producer — Bekah Simms
Recording Engineer — Paul Talbott
Mixing — Paul Talbott
Mastering — Fedge
Assistant Recording Engineers — Stephen Koszler, Kohen Hammond, Christine Stoesser (Revolution Recording)
Album Art — Dan Tapper
Graphic Design — Yeşim Tosuner (Backyard Design)
Orchestra manager, administrative assistant — Evan Bowen
Canadian Music Centre — Glenn Hodgins, President and CEO.
Centrediscs — Nicole Blain, Producer

Recording dates and locations — Tracks 1 & 3 : 14-04-2022, Revolution Recording, Toronto, Ontario. Track 2 : 16-05-2021, Studios Piccolos, Montréal, Québec.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Bekah Simms Glasgow, UK

The music of JUNO and Gaudeamus Award-nominated composer Bekah Simms has been heralded as “cacophonous, jarring, oppressive — and totally engrossing!” (CBC Music) and lauded for its "sheer range of ingenious material, expressive range and sonic complexity" (The Journal of Music.) Her work is propelled equally by fascination and terror toward the universe. ... more

contact / help

Contact Bekah Simms

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Bekah Simms, you may also like: