[Photo credit to Valaquia Studio]
Ottawa-Montréal duo Paramorph Collective operates as “both and neither a chamber ensemble and band.” Its members include An Laurence and Kim Farris-Manning who both contribute as multi-faceted performers but also as creators. They will be releasing their debut album All we’re made of is borrowed via Redshift Records.
The album bridges many worlds in themes of “grief, regeneration, legacy, and connection.” Bookended by Canadian composer Rodney Sharman’s “Elegy” and solo guitar piece, “For Guitar”, played by An Laurenc.)
The album’s centrepiece is a commission from Margot George called “Fruiting Bodies.” Based in Oakland, California, George is “invested in precise tuning systems, minimalist sonic architecture, and exploring concepts of gender identity and spiritual practice.”
The album was recorded at Montréal studio Hotel2Tango by producer/engineer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (AKA Jerusalem In My Heart, engineer for Ought, Suuns, and Matana Roberts).
Previous joint projects include video-opera til death do us (2021, Lucky Penny Opera + re:Naissance Opera), and participatory virtual choir multimedia piece suddenly I was alone / d’un tratto ero sola (2021, Sing the North).
Kim Farris-Manning entered the Techniques en environnement forestier et faunique program at Collège La Cité, working as a climbing arborist and graduating as a Forest Technician in 2023. Dividing her time between Ottawa and Montréal, Farris-Manning’s artistic and arboricultural practices are “deeply intertwined, feeding and nourishing each other.”
Farris-Manning is also one half of folk-indie duo YELLOW. In addition to being active as a writer, in 2020, she adopted the pseudonym King of Chlorophyll as an outlet for arboreally-oriented drag performance.
An Laurence ( 安 媛) is a musician and composer (guitar/vocals) active in Montréal’s contemporary/experimental music scene. She also operates as a curator in music and visual arts, and performance/multimedia artist whose work focuses on “memory and transnational identity.” In 2022 she released her eclectic and double-CD- length debut album Almost Touching (2022) with people | places | records. Its title track was a composition by Farris-Manning. She has been an artist in residence for Oboro and Vidéographe, and holds degrees in classical guitar performance (B.Mus) and arts and technology (DESS).
