Sled Island and CBC Calgary present: 36?, Melted Mirror, Astral Swans and HYMM

36?
Supple vocals and sharp-elbowed guitar blasts paint the ultimate awkward family portrait as the seven-membered 36? couch-wrestles with the torment of human existence. Projecting a flurry of sonic emotions onto a hyper-creative canvas, this cathartic art-rock basement party will decompress your cerebellum and put a few dozen pizzas on your likewise overloaded credit card.

Melted Mirror
Hot off the release of their first studio album Past Life, Melted Mirror are at the peak of their goth-pop meets synth-punk powers. They blend elements of dance music’s propulsion with the foreboding rattle of vocalist Chris Zajko’s deathly moans and snarls. Their music can be punishing at times, but that only makes the rewards of the rhythms even sweeter.

Astral Swans
Astral proprietor Matthew Swann writes soft and swimmy music that sounds the way the sky looks when it’s reflected in one of those oil-rainbow puddles that collect on the streets after a prairie evening rain blast. But even as they’re evaporating into the psych-folk darkened atmosphere, Swanns’ songs have an ugly-duckling honesty keeping them grounded.

HYMM
HYMM is a many-membered (at last count, eight) folk ensemble that draws on the various cultural backgrounds of its membership for a hybrid form of folk music equal parts traditional and contemporary. Together, their stated mission is to demonstrate how cooperation, collaboration and a peaceful mindset can transcend our differences.