Executive Overview
Since its inception in 2001 by Jordan Nobles and Mark Takeshi McGregor, Redshift Records—the recording arm of the North Vancouver concert society founded in 2007—has charted a fiercely independent path through contemporary Canadian classical music. Operating out of North Vancouver, the label has consistently championed living composers, staging spatial presentations of new music in unconventional acoustic environments ranging from public swimming pools and libraries to graveyards.
Yet, the label’s catalogue has historically remained a compact disc and digital download proposition. Consequently, the physical release of Robyn Jacob’s new concert music collection, New Forevers, as a 12-inch vinyl pressing is a deliberate curatorial and economic statement. It is a calculated gamble on physical media for uncompromising contemporary composition.
Jacob, a versatile Vancouver-based pianist, singer, and composer, is well-known within Canadian avant-pop and experimental circles. However, New Forevers marks her first major collection of contemporary concert music. Percussion sits at the structural center of every piece on the album.
The vinyl sequencing deliberately inverts the digital tracklist. By presenting the monumental, 18-and-a-half-minute title track in its entirety on Side A before moving to the paired Portals works on Side B, the vinyl edition forces the listener to engage immediately with the album’s most harrowing material. It is a bold, uncompromising artistic sequence that mirrors the gravity of its subject matter: the ecological reckoning of the Anthropocene.
Detailed Chronology & Track Breakdown
Side A: "New Forevers"
- Composers/Performers: Architek Percussion, joined by vocalists Asitha Tennekoon, Lucien Durey, Danny Najjar, and Eric Biskupski.
- Duration: 18:30
The term "perpetual care" carries a double meaning in the language of cemeteries: it is the fee paid to maintain a burial plot indefinitely, but it is also the bureaucratic euphemism for the eternal monitoring of poisoned industrial sites. Jacob’s title track explicitly addresses the Giant Mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, where 237,000 tonnes of toxic arsenic trioxide dust sit sealed in underground, mined-out chambers. This hazardous waste is prevented from leaching into the water table only by an industrial-scale, federally funded freezing system that must run—in perpetuity.
The piece opens with abstract spoken-word passages delivered by the four-man vocal ensemble. Around this disembodied voice, Jacob constructs a bleak, dystopian landscape of tuned mallet keyboards, heavy orchestral drums, and choral verses. Her sixteen-year immersion in gamelan ensembles—where struck bronze bars form the entire architectural framework—clearly informs the eerie, metallic clarity of the mallet writing.
As the piece progresses, players step in and out of the texture, and the vocal writing eventually settles into harmonized figures whose modal inflexions hark back to early sacred music. It functions successfully as an avant-garde soundtrack for an ecological dystopia. The decision to dedicate an entire side of vinyl to a single 18-minute work serves the music well, providing the uninterrupted run and dynamic silence necessary to let the work breathe at its lowest dynamic thresholds.
Side B: "Portals I: In The Offing" (2024)
- Performers: SHHH!! Ensemble (Zac Pulak on percussion, Edana Higham on piano).
In stark contrast to the dense, harrowing architecture of "New Forevers," Side B opens with "Portals I: In The Offing," performed by the Ottawa-based SHHH!! Ensemble. This piece offers a far more stripped-back sonic environment. The piano leads throughout, while the percussion is held in reserve.
The work begins with clipped, nervous agitation before gradually giving way to a slower, more exposed rhythmic space. It stands out as one of the most immediately arresting and structurally transparent works on the release, showcasing Jacob’s ability to generate tension with sparse, economical means.
Side B: "Portals II: The Verge" (2024)
- Performers: Noam Bierstone, Alexander Haupt, and violist Marilou LePage.
The record’s most fascinating technical achievement lies in its closing piece, "Portals II: The Verge." Throughout its twelve-minute duration, the dominant auditory impression is that of a small, sustained string ensemble playing in rich, resonant harmony.
However, a closer look at the credits reveals a twist: only one of the three performers (violist Marilou LePage) is actually holding a string instrument. The rest of the string-like textures are produced entirely through bowed percussion.
Jacob achieves a remarkable, deceptive blend of timbres here, creating a suspended state of harmonic ambiguity. The composer describes the piece as capturing the exact, frozen moment of balance before a sudden plunge into the unknown. While the lack of a traditional, navigable structure can make the piece elusive on early listens, its sonic wizardry remains a high-water mark for the album.
Supporting Context & Metrics
The Artist: Robyn Jacob’s Multifaceted Career
To understand the distinct voice of New Forevers, one must examine Robyn Jacob’s diverse background in the Canadian underground and contemporary music scenes. Her creative output spans multiple distinct projects:
- Only A Visitor: As a core member of this avant-pop group, Jacob contributed to their critically acclaimed fourth album, Decay, released on Mint Records in 2023.
- Gamelan Bike Bike: From 2013 until 2024, Jacob co-led this Balinese-influenced ensemble. Notably, the group’s instruments were constructed entirely from scrap metal salvaged from Vancouver’s industrial bins, deeply influencing her tactile relationship with percussion and tuned metal timbre.
- The Giving Shapes: A collaborative chamber duo pairing Jacob with harpist Elisa Thorn.
Despite her extensive footprint in indie-pop, gamelan, and chamber improvisation, New Forevers represents her debut collection dedicated entirely to notated concert music.
Architek Percussion and the Montreal Contemporary Scene
It is critical to note that despite the organic, fluid feel of the performances, nothing on this recording is improvised. Every single note across the album is meticulously notated and commissioned.
The title track was specifically commissioned by Architek Percussion. Based in Montreal, this dynamic percussion quartet has built an impressive catalogue comprising over 60 commissions and world premieres, working with a diverse roster of contemporary composers ranging from Nicole Lizée to Jason Sharp. Their technical precision provides the rock-solid foundation required to execute Jacob’s demanding, structurally complex scores.
The Digital Bonus Material
While the vinyl edition is strictly curated down to three primary works across two sides, the digital release of New Forevers expands the scope. It includes three additional bonus tracks, notably a live performance by the Grammy-winning percussion group Sō Percussion, alongside a solo mallet miniature.
These digital additions, while valuable for completists, sit outside the carefully paced narrative arc of the vinyl release, highlighting the distinct curatorial identities of physical and digital distribution models in modern classical music.
Official Statements & Industry Reception
The release of New Forevers on vinyl has generated significant discussion among critics regarding the viability and economics of contemporary classical music on physical formats. Redshift Records’ unwavering support for such specialized, uncommercial repertoire underscores a rare dedication to artistic vision over streaming algorithms.
In press materials accompanying the release, the Portals series is framed as a psychological entry point—an artistic exploration of how contemporary society reckons with the compounding crises of climate change. Yet, as critics have noted, the physical constraints of the vinyl LP subvert this narrative journey. By forcing listeners to confront the industrialized nightmare of "New Forevers" on Side A before reaching the contemplative, open spaces of the Portals works on Side B, the physical edition demands a tougher, more courageous listening strategy.
Robyn Jacob herself has characterized "Portals II: The Verge" as an exploration of equilibrium—the micro-second of weightlessness before falling into an abyss. This conceptual framework accounts for the music’s suspended time, even if it occasionally challenges listeners accustomed to teleological, goal-oriented compositional forms.
Future Outlook
The release of New Forevers marks a pivotal inflection point in Robyn Jacob’s career, successfully bridging her background in avant-pop, gamelan, and community-engaged music with the rigorous demands of contemporary classical concert composition. By entrusting her debut concert music collection to Redshift Records and master interpreters like Architek Percussion and the SHHH!! Ensemble, she has established a high benchmark for her future compositional work.
At the same time, the release poses broader questions for the future of independent contemporary music publishing. In an era dominated by playlist algorithms and compressed digital files, Redshift’s decision to press an uncompromising, 18-minute acoustic-industrial meditation onto heavy vinyl is an act of quiet defiance.
Whether niche contemporary classical vinyl can find a sustainable economic model remains an open question—one that both the label and the composer appear willing to answer through continued artistic excellence. For listeners willing to surrender to its stark, unyielding sonic world, New Forevers offers a haunting, necessary dispatch from the ecological edge of the modern world.
