For those unaware, “Dream of Heat” explores the cycle of death and rebirth as manifested by the experience of winter. The arc of the album follows an isolated awareness descending into the subconscious horrors and hopes of hibernation dreams before warming and waking to the flow of life.

Written by Ida Toninato and Jennifer Thiessen for their live show “Winter[City]Speaks”, this project follows their first album “The Space Between Us” (Ambiances Magnétiques) which was nominated for Juno and Opus awards in 2019.

This new body of work began as sonic postcards exchanged by the two musicians during the solitude of lockdown in the winter of 2021. These seed recordings were then nurtured into compositions that expanded the duo’s initial acoustic palette of viola, viola d’amore, baritone saxophone and reverberant spaces to include their spoken and sung voices, original texts in French and English, electronics, effects and field recordings.

The journey leading to the album “Dream of Heat” was as personal as it was creative and musical—a story of friendship, of opening doors and portals, and of daring to show up in renewed ways.

1. I need warmth [06:58]
2. Bear [06:17]
3. On a tellement rêvé [07:31]
4. Hot blood flow [06:04]
5. I am suffocating [05:12]
6. Change [07:22]

On what is a simply incredible sophomore album from the dutifully focused composer-performer duo, they open on the emotively engaging I need warmth and that is backed by the willowy Bear, the more industrialized ebbs, echoes and notches of On a tellement rêvé, the veritably ethereal smoothness of Hot blood flow, the set rounding out on the rhythmically canorous I am suffocating, coming to a close on the impassioned nuances within Change.

Collaborating with performer-composer Jason Sharp on the production of the studio album continued the creative evolution of these six experimental songs, bringing a distinctive breadth and depth to the music while remaining grounded in the instrumental craft and imaginative vision that define the artistry of Toninato & Thiessen.

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