About
Within recent years, Tio'tia:ke/Montréal-based artist Allison Burik has emerged a key part of the city's vibrant jazz and experimental music scenes. Their recent debut solo album, Realm, explores the sonic possibilities of the woodwinds through electronics and contact microphones, and blends a plethora of influences into an engrossing and mythologically informed whole. While atmosphere is the driving force behind many of their compositions, they also draw on aspects of free improvisation, the darker end of ambient, and folk musics. Originally from Kansas City, Burik lived in Boston while pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Performance at Berklee College of Music, and later a Master’s degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory. They've maintained a steady engagement with an array of different musical forms with bands in the US and Canada, as well as leading their own projects in Montreal. They are a member of the collective Bellbird, which recently signed to Constellation records and released their second full length album, “The Call.” Brian Slattery of the New Haven Independent praised one of Burik’s live performances remarking that "Burik—who, in a band uniformly bursting with fierce talent, requires special mention for some transfixing, revelatory playing." Over the years Burik has worked with notable musicians including George Garzone, Joe Morris, Tyshawn Sorey, Ingrid Laubrock, Ran Blake, Carla Kilhstedt, Anthony Coleman, Frank Tiberi, Bobby Watson, Jaleel Shaw, Shannon LeClaire, and Tia Fuller.