Arts

Local French-Canadian artist Stéphanie Prest essentially put the rest of her artistic life on hold for two years to make the art that eventually made up her exhibit Big Sky. Between when she started the work for the exhibit and now, Prest has been through multiple chapters of her life. Things have changed; she’s processed […]

Camosun University Transfer alumnus Dylan Thomas (Qwul’thilum) grew up listening to stories about the importance of salmon. It’s not just a food resource to coastal BC, he says—it’s a source of art and culture. Thomas is a Coast Salish artist from the Lyackson First Nation, and the story passed down to him from his mother’s […]

Briars of North America Supermoon (Brassland) 4.5/5 One of the most beautiful things music does is highlight the emotions and themes that the artists were trying to convey on the day they sat down and created the songs in question. With their new album, Supermoon, which expertly conveys the atmospheres of the places the musicians […]

Cultural art is extremely important to society because of the way it can convey its artist’s thoughts and feelings about their countries and cultures. Look no further than Fan Kuan’s famous Travelers Among Mountains and Streams painting, which vividly conveys the magic world of China in the Song dynasty, or the masterworks of Akira Kurosawa, […]

The woods, mountains, and skies of Vancouver Island are roaring places. There’s a wild feel in the air among the tall grasses and the fault lines. So says local musician Evan Cheadle, whose new album Fault Line Serenade, which comes out this Friday, is just the way he likes it: sad and mellow, incredibly reflective, […]

La Battue Get Set, Go! (Parapente Music) 4.5/5 The goal for every musician is to create a lasting piece of art that represents its writers’ thoughts and feelings about the subject matter the music is addressing. This is precisely what fresh France indie pop band La Battue have done with their exhilarating second EP, Get […]

Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the 38th edition of the TD Victoria International JazzFest will be held online next month. One of the performers playing at what has been coined Virtual JazzFest is local trombonist, bassist, and producer Nick La Riviere. And while the show is virtual, that doesn’t mean La Riviere isn’t going full-steam […]

The Greater Victoria Shakespeare Festival (GVSF) won’t be held at Camosun College this year. The festival, which was postponed last year due to COVID, has been held annually in the area between Wilna Thomas and the Dunlop House at the college’s Lansdowne campus. However, due to construction at Wilna Thomas as well as COVID-19 restrictions, […]

Austin Stambaugh Magnolia Sessions (Anti-Corporate Music) 4.5/5 If Johnny Cash’s most introspective musical moments and Irish pub folk singer Johnny Duhan’s most morose songs got drunk on a lonely winter night and joined hands, Nashville-based folk singer Austin Stambaugh’s Magnolia Sessions would be the introspective, sad, soul-feeding result. This music on this album—the latest in […]

Fences Wide Eyed Elk Ensemble (Enci Records) 3.5/5 Christopher Mansfield, vocalist and guitarist of Seattle indie pop/rock band Fences, has lived a colourful life, including time spent in rehab. He’s tapped into that on the band’s new EP, Wide Eyed Elk Ensemble: the release is a great grab bag of emotions. “Boot Height” is a […]