Picastro’s string-laden dynamics share a kinship with the music of fellow Canadians Godspeed You! Black Emperor, as well as The Dirty Three and Rachels. The band has played shows with Godspeed, Mick Turner (of The Dirty Three), Smog, Elliot Smith, Cat Power, Herman Düne, Cerberus Shoal and Thee More Shallows.
You may already be familiar with their music from the use of a track from the album in the hit Kiefer Sutherland TV drama ‘24’. Liz Hysen also appears on Cerberus Shoal’s album ‘Bastion of Itchy Preeves’ and Dwayne Sodahberk’s album ‘Unfortunately’ (tigerbeat6).
Other band members have included Owen Pallett (The Hidden Cameras), Evan Clarke (Burn Rome In A Dream), Zak Hanna (Bush League, ex-Pecola) and Rachel McBride.
Khôra is an experimental music project of Toronto resident Matthew Ramolo aimed at blurring the lines that separate the organic and synthetic, improvisation and composition.
The emphasis in Khôra’s music is distributed between interlocking melodies (nested arpeggios, broken fugal voices, etc.) performed on acoustic and electronic instruments and experimentation involving field recordings and analogue/digital processing.
From moving sparseness to fervent density, the music summons the spirit of eastern modes, contemporary classical, avant and sacred minimalism, experimental rock, and various forms of electronic music.
