solo at Bar Le Ritz PDB, 2018, Montreal. Photo by Elaine Louw Graham
is a sound and multi-disciplinary artist, experimental musician and composer. She has performed and presented works in Australia, Canada, the USA, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
She works primarily with acoustic and electronic sound, texture, repetition, duration and structure. She creates sound sculptures from small electronic components and found materials, composes and performs text and video scores, and collaborates across the disciplines of installation, choreography and videography.
Since 2020 she has been working with Québec-based dancer/choreographers Emilie Morin and Priscilla Guy on a series of creative residencies which will culminate in the production of dance/sound/video performance Peau, premiering in Montreal at Agora de la Danse in November 2023.
Millar collaborates within her local and international communities with artists such as Anne-F Jacques, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama and Ryoko Akama, and she is one member of a.hop an international group of 9 sound artists. She played clarinet with new music Ensemble SuperMusique in Montreal from 2017 to 2022.
Her compositions have been commissioned by Productions SuperMusique Montreal (2020, 2022), Western Front Vancouver (2019) and NOW Society Vancouver (2018). She is a leader of improvisation and text-score workshops for sound artists and musicians internationally.
Recent festival appearances include WWIM (AUS, 2023), Audible Edge (AUS, 2022), Roam (UK, 2021), RE:FLUX16 (Moncton, 2021), Audiograft (UK, 2021), IICSI (Guelph, 2020), Umbral (Mexico, 2019), X Avant (Toronto, 2019), send + receive (Winnipeg 2019), Soundslike (Saskatoon 2019), Open Waters (Halifax 2019), Rencontres de Musique Spontanée (Rimouski 2019), IMOO (Ottawa, 2019).
solo at Bar Le Ritz PDB, 2018, Montreal. Photo by Elaine Louw Graham
Elizabeth Millar est une musicienne expérimentale, artiste sonore et compositrice. Elle fabrique des sculptures sonore, compose et joue des partitions texte et collabore à travers les disciplines de chorégraphie et vidéographie. Elle a joué et présenté son travail à travers le Canada et dans plusieurs pays: Australie, Japon, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaisie, Singapour et Mexique.
Ses oeuvres solo AFR3 et no instrument machine, air explorent l’étendue des textures et timbres qu’elle met en jeu par l’amplification de la clarinette et l’intégration de sons de machines, de résonances métalliques et de sons d’air de basse fréquence produits par des instruments inventés et confectionnés à partir de composantes électroniques recyclées. Elle est membre de Sound of the Mountain, un duo de clarinette et trompette amplifiées avec Craig Pedersen, et de a.hop, un groupe de neuf artistes sonores.
Au nombre de ses réalisations récentes les plus marquantes, quelques performances dans divers festivals: Audible Edge (AUS, 2022), Roam (UK, 2021), RE:FLUX16 (Moncton, 2021), Audiograft (UK, 2021), IICSI (Guelph, 2020), Umbral (Mexico, 2019), X Avant (Toronto, 2019), send + receive (Winnipeg 2019), Soundslike (Saskatoon 2019), Open Waters (Halifax 2019), Rencontres de Musique Spontanée (Rimouski 2019), IMOO (Ottawa, 2019).
Elizabeth Millar at Sotterenea, Montreal, 2019
Photo by Martin Greizis
In her solo project, Elizabeth Millar combines the sounds of amplified fans, propellers and clarinet, acoustic and electronic sounds of sustained mechanical hums, metal surfaces, air and breath.
Sound of the Mountain at Video Pool Media Arts Centre, Winnipeg, 2019. Photo by Robert Szkolnicki
Should you be without any information and listening to this music, you could easily believe this is some electro-acoustic music; maybe of objects pushed around on a carpet, but then heavily amplified; very soft in volume but very powerful at the same time. This is some fascinating stuff. -Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly.
SOTM
A duo of amplified clarinet and trumpet (Elizabeth Millar & Craig Pedersen), Montreal-based Sound of the Mountain merges acoustic and electronic textures through close amplification. They create improvised soundscapes, evoking a range of textures, from spaciousness to room saturation. Since forming in 2015, they have played over 100 concerts together, internationally throughout Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Mexico and Australia, and coast-to-coast throughout Canada.
live at CJSW in Calgary, video is 3D, click and move the mouse to look around
bollards and bus stops (2022) for a.hop
something moving something still (2022) commissioned by Ensemble Supermusique Montreal
envelopes (2021) commissioned by a.hop
loudness (2020) commissioned by Ensemble Supermusique Montreal
sound 2019-11-09 (2019) for the Shalabi-Millar Septet, Western Front, Vancouver
air-surface (2018) with Justin Devries, commissioned by Now Society Ensemble, Vancouver
also performed by Ensemble Habitant, Montreal at Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival 2019
Elizabeth Millar with Christof Kurzmann at the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival 2019, Montreal. Photo by Martin Greizis
Anne-F Jacques, Elizabeth Millar, Martin Tétreault and Craig Pedersen at Sotterenea, Montreal, 2019. Photo by Martin Greizis
Elizabeth Millar with Joane Hétu and Esther Bourdages at the Mardi Spaghetti Marathon 2018, Montreal. Photo by Martin Greizis
Residency with Tone List at Spectrum Project Space, Perth, Australia 2017.
Read the residency writeup here.
Sound of the Mountain (Elizabeth Millar, Craig Pedersen) with Shinkan Tamaki (Japan) at KLEX Fest 2017, Malaysia.