The Pines Recording was built in an unassuming building on Murray Street in Griffintown, Montreal by David Bryant and Brooke Crouser in the early 2000’s. Apart from being a working recording studio (apart from David’s own groups Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Set Fire to Flames and Hiss Tracts, a diverse variety of people passed through over the years) it was also a residence for up to three people at a time. I lived and worked there from 2012 to 2018 and continued to store my instruments there and use the live room after the dismantling of the studio in November of that latter year. In 2020 the current residents finally gave up the lease and so the space was finally completely vacated. Apart from those otherwise noted, these photos were taken on the day I moved my Hammond organ and amplifier out for good in November 2020. An incredible amount of Montreal music history took place within these walls – I sincerely hope that the ghosts of these things will manifest in some way to whoever inhabits the now reconfigured space… Things I recorded and mixed there include the two Keraunograph Ensemble LP’s (the second still unreleased), Preterite’s ‘Remembrancer’, my solo recordings Xenolith, Rapacious Sky and Contagious Spaces, as well as my contributions to recordings by John Duncan, Ingenting Kollektiva and Un Festin Sagital. Much that I begun hadn’t the time to be completed, and waits for a new venue to be found.

Thanks to David for inviting me to be a part of things, and my former co-residents Drew Barnet, Kier-La Janisse and Michaela Grill for making life better in one way or another.

In addition to the 11 LP box sets released in December 2015, there were four bespoke CDr copies of The Omnipresent Volume IV produced in 2016.

“Imitation is an existential mistake. So, to escape from the trivial cycle of relationships in music, the musician, the artist, must be absolutely independent, which means absolutely alone.”
— Iannis Xenakis