John Southworth - Rialto (2021)

A few years back I had this dream: I was walking through vast grasslands towards a solitary hill. On top of the hill was a movie house. On the marquee: History of Jazz

I kept thinking about it. What was in the movie house? Why was I going there? Why “History of Jazz”? To reach some kind of insight, I began a film script, extending the dream tenfold. The script morphed into a novella-sized book, a series of songs, and finally, a “mind-movie” podcast, forming this labyrinthine, multi-medium story – equal parts dream, film and waking life.

Figuring out how to transcend the traditional parameters of the album to create a more panoramic story-vision is something I’ve been unconsciously trying to do for some time. I’ve been pushing against the edges – toying with narrative, characters and visuals with Easterween and Niagara, a weird children’s book Daydreams for Night – but the scope of life behind Rialto felt too irrepressible and expansive to be boxed in an album. The book and podcast have kicked open the doors – allowing the album to lead or serve where it should.

In Rialto’s extended narrative, Klaus (loner, insomniac) is working a stint as a driver for a small town writer’s festival. Following a series of unsettling paranormal events, he finds himself agreeing to a strange request – to deliver a film reel in time for its premiere at a secluded movie house – the Rialto. The journey leads him through a circuit of strangely located, oracular movie houses, screening a mix of dreams, fantasies, memories and prophecies – numinous films of personal revelation. Inhabiting the movie houses are underworld characters and spirits with ambiguous motivations, some helping and some hindering Klaus’s quest. It’s a Dantesque, deep cleanse pilgrimage to untangle bitterness and trauma, rediscover a lost clairvoyance, ancestry, and ultimately, the medicinal source of eternal youth. A metaphysical noir. A hyperstition.

Rialto’s album stars seven singer-artists playing characters alongside mine: Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station), Daniel Knox, Thom Gill (Owen Pallet, Beverly Glenn-Copeland), Ryan Driver (Jennifer Castle), Felicity Williams (Bahamas), Robin Dann (Bernice) and Martin Tielli (Rheostatics). All Toronto-based like me except Daniel (Chicago). Performed by the Venuti String Quartet with arrangements by Andrew Downing. Produced by Jean Martin (Tanya Tagaq). It's my 13th album and fourth on Tin Angel – previous releases on Tin Angel: Miracle In The Night (2019), Small Town Water Tower (2016), and Niagara (2014).

Each of Rialto’s eight podcast episodes features a chapter from the book performed by a cast of twenty five – made up almost entirely of musicians – including the speaking voices of the aforementioned singers, as well as Meg Remy (U.S. Girls), Claudia Dey, Veda Hille, Devon Sproule, Luka Kuplowsky and others. Rialto is available as a 92-page e-Book (illustrations by David Ouimet) November 1 on Sud de Valeur Press. Premiere performances begin early 2022.

Happy Rialto listening, reading, watching, dreaming – John Southworth.