Esther Bourdages
Esther Bourdages works in the visual arts field as a writer and curator. She holds an MA in Art History from Université de Montréal, where she wrote about the Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely and the relationship between sculpture in the broad sense (in situ art, installation) and sound and digital art. Performing under the name Esther B., she plays toy turntables to manipulate vinyl records and audio samples of field recordings to create new sounds. Her practice as a musician centres around improvisation – to create a raw, non-linear music, punctuated by abstract sounds such as those produced by altering the record (sanding, cutting, etc.). She is part of the turntablist trio Vinyl Interventions with Carrie Gates (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) and Marinko Jareb (St Catherines, Ontario). Together they developed the workshop series Vinyl Interventions, where she presents Echo of the Vinyl Record, Between the Sound and the Visual, Between the Past and the Present. Since 2002 Esther has organized A Microphone in a Noize Storm, a concert series dedicated to new music. She is actively involved in artist-run-centres and independent structures for many years, such as Quartier Ephemere (since 1996), Agence Topo, Eastern Bloc and CKUT radio.