Brooke Manning’s loom occupies an interstitial netherworld that stirs the face of remembering. Toronto-based artist, poet + death-midwife, Brooke creates in channelled pockets of silence + retreat. There, her delicate spareness of sound allows the weight of her subject matter to spiral into soft release. Likened to slowcore pioneers Low + Julie Doiron, reviewed in comparison to Hope Scandoval + Pj Harvey, loom chose to only perform few intentional live-shows yearly between 2014-2024, most recently opening for Beverley Glenn-Copeland, Sophie of Godspeed You Black Emperor! + Kaki King.
Self-taught by survival, with bedroom singles, collaborations + eps between '07-'10, Brooke released her first album as loom in '11 to enthusiastic review. Mixed + mastered by Sandro Perri, Epyllion was recorded in 4 days on Toronto Island with Thom Gill, Maya Postepski, Elaine Kelly, Dan Pencer. It marked a time of dark solitude, deep becoming, physical sickness, remission, surrender. April 2024, 13 years later, loom emerges quietly in ~rarefied air~ a live ep signalling the end of a well-worn cycle of remembering; a channel of impermanence now solidified marking the ways we choose memory + growth. “epistle”: bridge from there to here — a voice memo recorded into a fan in 2017; “mama”: etheric warning of woven voices in 2023, a meditation for the definitive moment.
