SpaceMelt is an experimental music and art ensemble
whose members include musicians Terri Hron and Samuel Davidson, and visual artist Michael Markowsky.

SpaceMelt exists at the nexus of contemporary classical electro-acoustic music, avant-garde jazz and performance art. The ensemble is dedicated to improvisation as a form of creative expression, as well as exploring collaborations between musicians and artists from as diverse a spectrum possible.

Additionally, SpaceMelt was established to not only foster an ongoing creative relationship between Terri, Sam and Michael, but also to use the result of that partnership to create an inviting environment for other artists (both well-versed and new to improvisation) to join in their collective music and art-making. It has been their experience that the stronger their voice and facility with instant structures, the less need there is for verbal instruction and decisions in advance.

Terri Hron and Samuel Davidson met at The Banff Centre during their ‘Creative Music Residencies’ in January 2009 and immediately began playing together. The duo continued to work together almost daily over the course of three months and organized two completely improvised musical concerts (titled FaceMelts) where fellow residents were invited to participate. It was through the first concert that they met Michael Markowsky who was a resident in the Visual Arts program at the same time.

The success of the event transformed the duo into a perhaps unlikely trio, who have since performed throughout Western Canada on numerous occasions to great acclaim. Both Terri and Sam play acoustic and electric, with a combination of recorder, clarinet, EWI and effect pedals. Their playing is an exploration of timbre and colour, grounded within an affinity for minimalism, instant forms and intonation experiments. Michael, through primarily a oil painter, utilizes the SpaceMelt performances as way of exploring and challenging the formal properties of materials and techniques such as ink, paint, collage, video, etc. under the constraint of time whilst in unusually large scale.

The ensemble’s name SpaceMelt reflects each member’s fascination for outer space and the uncharted artistic territory it represents. It also reflects the evolution of the group from the original FaceMelt concerts, which they hoped would be ‘facemelting’!

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