Volume 21 Issue 2 - October 2015

ERIN RILEY
On the Record
A Ground From
Which A Lot
Springs Forth
DAVID PERLMAN
As things turn out, Eve Egoyan’s latest recording, Thought
and Desire (Earwitness Editions EE2015, eveegoyan.com), is
reviewed elsewhere in this issue, so I will dwell less on the
specifics of it in this story than I otherwise might. But with
post-production on the disc, minimal as it was, only recently wrapped
when Egoyan and I chatted last May, it was very much in mind, so
perhaps unavoidably, our conversation started there.
“It’s interesting when you hear a disc in its entirety how satisfying
that is, because before then it’s only imagined. It’s a very important
disc for me. Beyond that it’s by one composer [Linda Catlin Smith]
who is a woman, which is important to me, it’s just gorgeous. And
it was recorded at the Banff Centre which is my first time recording
there and it was an exquisite experience ... between the location and
the pianos and the people we were working with ... just the focus of
time there. So the clarity, the fluidity of the experience – everything
just fell into place and I think you can hear that ease in the sound of
the recording because we were all very happy there.”
The fact that Catlin Smith was there for the whole session was
pivotal. “We received a Canada Council grant and decided that it
was actually quite cost effective to go there and be there and do it
very quickly,” Egoyan says, “because they offered everything. Also
because of the kind of music that it is. We decided from the start that
it wouldn’t be heavily edited, that it needn’t be, so, you know, it’s full
takes with the occasional insert. We actually walked away from four
or five days basically with a complete master. So we recorded it and
edited it within the time we were there, which was so wonderful;
because often, you know, with things you have recorded you sit with
them for months.”
Egoyan’s musical relationship with Catlin Smith goes back a long
way. “Actually my very first disc and my very first commission was a
work by Linda. We have had this relationship working together for a
very long time and we’ve also released a disc of a work by her for cello
and piano, Ballade. I know her; I love how she writes for the piano;
and I wanted to document, as a disc, her piano music.”
Egoyan’s pleasure at the two Steinways
available for the project at Banff is palpable.
“I was using their more recent Steinway,
which was lovely for the quality of sound
for Linda’s music. I’ve actually been very
lucky with pianos recently. I’ve just come
back from a tour where I have had two
Faziolis and two Steinways.” An embarrassment
of riches? I offer. “Totally,” she replies.
“In Regina it was the best Fazioli ever. It was
really lovely. Now, with tours, I’m treated
very well, I even get the better pianos.”
It wan’t always that way for a practitioner
of new music on tour. “It used to be that
when people knew I was playing new music
I was not given the better piano, because
the assumption was that I would be abusing
the piano, going inside the piano and
detuning it.”
Thought and Desire involves Egoyan’s
own Earwitness label, as many of her ten
solo recordings have done. But this one is
not a completely solo venture. “This one
actually is a mixture,” she says. “It’s a double
release with a European label [World Edition
(Germany)]. I’ve done this before and this
seems to be the best way. I mean, for me to be actually on a label
means....” She pauses for the right words. “Well, it’s almost like labels
don’t have a lot of money to put towards the release of your disc, so it’s
as though they take on a ton, and then they benefit if a disc does well.
And I am not sure where the artist benefits, if the disc is not reviewed,
or whatever. At this point in my career I don’t feel as though I need to
be part of ... I don’t – I never did actually – understand the function of
a label unless they go behind a disc, and very few labels will actually
go behind a contemporary disc. For them it’s like the curator of an art
gallery who takes on a ton of artists and is ok if, you know, they sell
one show a lot. So that’s how I see it.”
This is not sour grapes. Egoyan knows whereof she speaks. “I was on
CBC Records; I was on Mode Records; I was on Artifact (my first label).
And Centrediscs for three, the Ann Southam discs. Of course, if you
do go with a label there are expenses that the artist doesn’t have to
assume; [but] if sales go well, their cut is huge. So, for example, if this
disc does get a great review then I would benefit. And you know, as an
independent artist who makes a living through bits and pieces, that’s
important to me; and so rather than getting 50 percent ... I’ll have
distribution through a distributor, options for retail sales, as opposed
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