This past August, our intern Nathalie got some very exciting news… she’d won the 2019 MusiCounts scholarship for her work as a recording student! As their website says, “MusiCounts is Canada’s music education charity and is affiliated with CARAS and the JUNO Awards,” making the winning of such a scholarship quite the achievement! Nathalie and five other talented scholarship recipients from across Canada were invited to Toronto for an amazing week of mentorship and networking with industry professionals and their teams.

“While the monetary aspect of the scholarship is great, it was the mentorship week that made winning so amazing! I spent September 30th to October 4th in Toronto, meeting the most inspiring people and seeing important music locales. I was definitely awestruck when I first arrived at the MusiCounts headquarters, which happens to be the same office as the Juno Awards and CARAS! For those who are wondering, Juno trophies are pretty heavy! Yes, I got to hold one, and yes, it was awesome.”

—Nathalie

Throughout the week, Nathalie and the other recipients met mentors from Rogers Radio, Anthem Entertainment, Entertainment One, The Feldman Agency, the Juno Awards, Revolution Recording, and Spotify Canada, among many others. They also had a video chat with pop duo Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine, and had a songwriting masterclass with Matt Webb, guitarist of Marianas Trench. Each day was packed with mentorship sessions from 9 am to 5pm, culminating in the awards presentation and industry mixer at Dine Alone Records.

“We had a chance to speak at the presentation, which I was very happy about. It was a great opportunity to say thank you and let the mentors know how much their time spent with us meant to me. I learned so much, and have a notebook completely full of notes from each session. I’m still in regular contact with the other recipients too! If I had to sum up the most important things and put details aside, though, I’d say that in the music industry, you need passion, hard work, a willingness to reach out, and kindness. Your connections and reputation are so important, and I’m so grateful to MusiCounts for giving me the opportunity to start my career out with both in such a good place!” 

ATB Financial and Bent River Records are pleased to announce the 2019 Recording Competition winner is… Nisto!

Nisto is a Cree-Metis singer-songwriter from Fort Vermillion in Northern Alberta. He is a psychedelic folk-rock artist now residing in Edmonton to pursue his music career. He cites his number one biggest musical influence is Waylon Jennings but says that he finds influence pretty much anywhere. From blues, folk and classic 70s outlaw country, he does it all.

We would like to thank every one of the extraordinary Alberta artists who submitted their music to the competition. We are blown away with the amount of talent we’ve heard over the past couple of weeks!

Stay tuned for more details as we work with Nisto on his exciting new EP!

Two fantastic musicians here at Bent River Records have two brand new very mystical projects (wink,wink). This week’s blog is dedicated to both Jean-Nicolas Trottier presents The Mystic Mind Suite and Mallory Chipman and the Mystics!

Mallory Chipman & the Mystics is the latest brainchild of Edmonton vocalist/composer, Mallory Chipman. This project fuses Mallory’s improvisational sensibilities with jazz harmony, the unconventionality of progressive rock, and a pinch of psychedelic fairy dust. Their debut album AQUARIAN is set for release in early 2020.

“I wrote all of the tunes at Moose Farm Studio over the past year, and we recorded it at OCL Studios just over a month ago, and I am STOKED, pals!

For those of you who know me, I’m forever a rock and roller at heart, but I also looooove improvisation and chromatic harmony and progressive song forms, so I decided to start a band that plays my original music that fuses all of those whacky and wonderful things.

This record is pretty politically charged, and really, in my opinion, it is a call to action to be engaged with the world around you and the worlds within you. It is a combination of influences that just feels like “me”, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.” 

—Mallory Chipman

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The Mystic Mind Suite, a commissioned work for the Orchestre National de Jazz de Montreal by Jean-Nicolas Trottier, evolves as an unfolding sonic motif, from a single sound into an elaborate orchestral arrangement. It chronicles how an idea becomes a word, and then develops into an image in the mind’s eye, travelling through billions of synapses in the meanders of the river of our consciousness. Searching for a strong dynamic between soloists and the orchestra, he entrusts the virtuosity and thematic evolution to Yannick Rieu, Rafael Zaldivar and Sylvain Provost.

“Mystic Mind est un voyage inspiré et inspirant dans une sorte de métaphysique sonore qui n’a heureusement rien du pelletage de nuages théorique. Trottier s’amuse avec des thèmes et des motifs dont il fait permuter les textures, les reflets et les éclats selon leur passage dans les différentes sections de l’orchestre. Les espaces de liberté octroyés aux trois solistes (exceptionnels) qui sont en vedette, sont importants mais bien intégrés à l’ensemble.”

 —Frédéric Cardin, ICI Musique Radio-Canada

Come one, come all to MacEwan University’s 2019 open house! On Saturday, November 2nd, the school will be bustling with activity as new and prospective students come to campus to get a sense of what MacEwan is all about. Of course, we suggest that you take a trip to Allard Hall to enjoy some musical performances and meet some of our lovely associates!

From 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., Bent River Records will have a booth set up in the main atrium in Allard Hall, and whether you’re an Albertan musician, a prospective student, or you’re already studying or working at MacEwan, we’ll be ready to answer all of your questions about our artists, our competitions, and our place in the university community. And of course, information flows two ways. Tell us about your favourite artist on our roster or provide some feedback about our work in your community! Our associates would love to hear your thoughts and share their knowledge with you, so come on down and say hi!

Finally! We get to introduce the man that all submissions of the 2019 Bent River Records Recording Competition are fighting for the chance to work with:

Russell Broom.

Based out of Calgary, Russell is a fantastic producer, engineer, songwriter and guitar player. He has worked with countless amazing musicians like Jann Arden, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, and Sam Roberts, just to name a few. He has done work not only within the music industry, but is also a very active writer, performer and engineer in film and TV. He has done work for CMT (Lady Antebellum, Florida Georgia Line, Civil Wars, etc.), Alberta Primetime, Love Lies Bleed (Elton John) and many, many, many more. Besides being a phenomenal producer and engineer, he is also a very well-established guitar player across Canada and has played with the likes of Josh Groban, Robbie Williams and Brett Kissel. We could go on forever.

His hard work and creativity have led to many awards including a JUNO for songwriter of the year, WCMA producer of the year (three times!), WCMA musician of the year, WCMA engineer of the year and WCMA pop album of the year along with an even longer list of nominations.         We cannot wait to see who Russell Broom and his fellow judges choose to be the winner of the Bent River Records 2019 Recording Competition. We’ve had a listen ourselves and it won’t be easy to choose just one winner. There is just so much talent in Alberta!