COLIN FISHER

The ever-curious Colin Fisher has a been a major presence in Canada's music community for more than twenty years—particularly in more experimental and improvisational circles. Nothing short of a guitar virtuoso, he also wields saxophone, drums, and various other instruments with similarly refined musicality, vivid textural imagination, and sometimes feral abandon. On his one-man-bandtape Garden of Unknowning for Manchester's Tombed Visions, one hears all of this as he spars with different iterations of himself on guitar, sax, drum kit, synthesizer and more. The Quietus' cassette critic Tristan Bath extolled it as "miraculous," adding that "it’s a visceral experience soaking up this record, and it’s all down to Fisher’s utterly innate sense of musicality." He subsequently cited it in his 2018 contributor's year-end chart for the Wire.

The diversity of his skill, entwines that of collaborator Brandon Valdivia to lend the high-velocity performances of their polymorphous psych-improv duo Not The Wind, Not The Flag an urgent intrigue. The pair darts between different set-ups, building kaleidoscopic worlds on a foundation of cunningly deployed loops.

The recent Living Midnight (on Astral Spirits), features him leading the all-star Colin Fisher Quartet on sax alongside seasoned free jazz protagonists Marc Edwards, Brandon Lopez, and Daniel Carter. He's also made two duo albums with celebrated Nova Scotian jaw harp innovator chik white for Dylan and Lisa Nyoukis' Chocolate Monk label.

In 2014 his partnership with Nick Millevoi's trio Many Arms on Suspended Definition (Tzadik) prompted Spin's Brad Cohan to remark"Many Arms have dug even deeper into math-metal wizardry, bolstering their already imposing lineup with gale-force blowing guest saxophonist Colin Fisher, thus blasting their outré sonic blitz into a fire-breathing free jazz otherworld." Fisher later engaged the band's bassist, Johnny DeBlase, to team up with him and Kid Millions (Oneida, Man Forever) as Monas. As an ongoing collaborator to introspective dance music auteur Caribou, Fisher first appeared in offshoot project Caribou Vibration Ensemble, and subsequently on acclaimed albums Swim and Suddenly. In addition to performing alongside the likes of Jaime Branch, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Laraaji, Gerry Hemmingway, and Fred Frith, he has contributed to recordings by the Constantines (Sub Pop),Bernice (Arts & Crafts), Rhys Chatham (Table of the Elements), Born Ruffians (Warp), Anthony Braxton and AIMToronto Orchestra (Spool), and many more.

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"Much guitar-centric music, even of an experimentalist bent, ends up self-indulgent, hollow; V Le Pape is about as far from that as you can get. Fisher is always attentive to timbre and texture and mood, never veering into self-indulgence, even in the longest pieces, always responding—whether by deepening, nuancing, or undercutting—to the soundscape he has carefully developed."— Daniel Glassman, Musicworks on V Le Pape

"As with all involving art, the value comes not in the components, but how the musicians personalize and collectivize them in the moment. On that score, Fisher and his colleagues soundly hit the mark." — Derek Taylor, Dusted on Living Midnight

"Considering that Fisher obviously multi-tracked his parts, Garden of Unknowing sounds uncannily like real-time collective improvisation. The gradual build of intensity from track-to-track seals the deal." — Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise on Garden of Unknowing