Homstal

Homstal is an ongoing project by Brent Lee, that integrates saxophone improvisation, composition, electronica, and video. Each of these short pieces exists in some sort of live version involving real-time triggering and parameter mapping of audio and video events as a fixed audio recording and some sort of fixed video documentation.

Brent Lee writes:

“Homstal is a project that mixes improvisation with electroacoustic composition, fusing the richness of multilayered sonic textures with the intimacy of chamber jazz. The Homstal project began in 2012 while working on a film score. I was traveling with the crew as they shot on location in Europe and western Canada; director Kim Nelson’s idea was to include shots of me playing the saxophone while the saxophone could be heard in the soundtrack. While only one of the saxophone scenes was ultimately included in the film, I really liked the combination of soprano sax and ambient electronic textures and began creating a set of pieces I could perform on my own. At the time, the Noiseborder Ensemble was working on a large-scale SSHRC-funded project exploring the relationship between sound and image in multimedia performance; Homstal became a sub-project of that research, testing and implementing Max and M4L patches in a solo setting.

“The first Homstal performance took place the following year during a stay at the Residency Eina Dance in Norway; since then, I have continued to create more pieces in this vein, occasionally presenting them on my own or within performances of the Noiseborder Ensemble. In 2024, we launched the first album of six Homstal pieces on the Centrediscs label.

“Homstal is an olde English word meaning “home” or “homestead”. I like the ring of the word, and since much of the work on this project has been accomplished at my studio in rural Ontario, the name seems apt.”

 

Link to streaming services 

 

Selected Homstal Pieces