Since its inception in 2014, Hamilton Ontario’s Zula Presents’ Something Else! Festival has rapidly become a vital and important presence in the North American experimental music circuit. Its curious outlook is rooted in freeform jazz, yet its reach continues to extend in a dizzying array of different directions, boasting energetic performances in intimate and unique settings, including unforeseen one-of-a-kind collaborations between major musical innovators.

Past Zula programming has featured a number of leading international exploratory voices including the likes of: Joe McPhee, Susan Alcorn, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark, William Parker, Toshimaru Nakamura, Iva Bittová, and Joshua Abrams alongside Canadian talent such as Brodie West’s Eucalyptus, Lori Freedman, Sam Shalabi, Norm Adams, Peggy Lee, Lina Allemanbo, Germaine Liu and many more.

Zula had to postpone a stellar 2020 edition of Something Else! in light of the pandemic, but has continued to forge ahead with occasional outdoor and otherwise alternative forms of events. We’re very much looking forward to their eventual full-fledged return.

For now, Multilocation will reprise one of the 2019 Festival’s most dynamic performances by the group No Silenz — a wildly imaginative transatlantic partnership between Montréalers Susan Hood (voice & movement) and Jason Sharp (bass saxophone) plus French musicians Fredéric B Briet (double bass) and Christophe Rocher (clarinets)

To find out more about their upcoming programming visit somethingelsefestival.com.