Friday's Live: Where the River Bends

SXXN is the electronic project of Alex Raja Ven, an interdisciplinary artist working between ambient, noise, techno, visual art, dance and the avant-garde. Her practice focuses on intersections of technology, identity and place, which they explore through emotive sounds, shapes, textures and performances. Despite her prolific nature, Alex Raja Ven remains an enigmatic figure within Canada’s artistic landscape. Their work is a temporal anomaly, reflecting a granular approach that continues to challenge and redefine the boundaries of contemporary artmaking practices. 

Brigid Burke is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Windsor, ON. Her work ranges across illustration, graphic design, djing, music, and much more. The music she plays in her sets are upbeat and immersive, flowing from trance to hip hop. She focuses on playing female producers as much a possible, These producers inspire Brigid with their experimental sounds and unique palettes. Through her DJ sets, she supports these producers and hopes to bring new audiences to their music.

“(Brendan Scott Friel) effortlessly pulls you in with a grounding sense of comfort and vulnerability – finding a perfect balance between the authenticity of folk music and a refreshing sense of sonic explorations.” – The Permanent Rain Press 

In the late winter months of 2016, Brendan Scott Friel ran away. The long term relationship he was in had come to a messy end. At the same time, his band, that he had just spent most of his life’s savings on, broke up. Brendan was one dead dog away from a cliche country song. Confused and depressed, Brendan spent what little money he had left to go to Holland with just his beat up acoustic guitar and a backpack. He would spend the coming months busking across Europe and rediscovering what excited him about being a musician.   

He came back that Summer with a new determination and has since released three full length albums – “Quiet Cars” (2017) which Friel produced and recorded himself,  “Summer Moons” released in 2021 and “2021” released October of 2023, both of which saw Brendan team up with  producer James Bunton (Donovan Woods, Joey Landereth, David Myles) These releases have received playlist support and features from Mahogany, Exclaim!, Alex Rainbird Music, Canadian Beats and radio play on CBC, Folk Roots Radio, 93.9 the River, Virgin Radio 96.7 as well as college radio stations across Canada, Europe and the United States. His latest record 2021 and independent singles “Piece of You”, “Through the Rain” and “Cold Air”  landed spots on Apple Music’s “New in Singer-Songwriter” and “Acoustic Winter” playlist. 

 Shawn developed an interest in guitar fairly early in life, taking his first lessons at age 11. He began playing in rock bands during high school while also dabbling in writing his own songs. After high school he decided to dedicate more time towards his interest in visual art, studying ceramics at Sheridan college with ambitions of becoming a potter, all the while still playing music and writing songs. After graduating he moved home to London where his brother Derek had also just returned from university. They began playing music together at that point, creating mostly ambient music together, which they still do under the name Habalayon. As Shawn’s songwriting became more refined they decided to apply some of the ambient sounds as accompaniment to the more traditional songs Shawn was writing, an approach they are still pursuing today.  

Kamryn Cusumano is a Windsor-based photographer and music curator. She’s been involved with the local music scene for over a decade and works as an artist manager, music festival organizer and marketing consultant for bands and artists. She is the owner of Uma Loft, a creative studio by day and touring band crash pad by night. Her passion for putting Windsor’s music scene on the map has led Kamryn to create, produce and host a live music show which takes place in Uma Loft called Uma Sessions. 6 episodes are available online on Bell Fibe TV 1 which gives a snapshot of the Windsor music scene during this moment in time. Kamryn looks forward to using the AWE Friday’s Live event to introduce new audiences to emerging local and Canadian artists.