Dun-Dun Band is a ten-member ensemble based in Toronto led by guitarist Craig Dunsmuir, inspired by North African gnawa music, American minimalism, progressive/post-rock and spiritual jazz. It features members of cross-genre jazz-informed groups The Weather Station, Eucalyptus, Badge Epoque Ensemble, GUH, and The Brodie West Quintet.
Dunsmuir has long been drawn to the trance-like states that repetitive music and irregular rhythmic patterns can produce in both players and listeners. Since he never underwent formal jazz training despite having a deep interest as part of his practice, Dun-Dun Band aims to further develop the melodic and rhythmic style originally expressed in Dunsmuir’s solo and duo projects (as can be heard on such Constellation releases as Kanada 70’s Vamp Ire, Glissandro 70’s self-titled album, and Off World 2), with his ‘riff medley’ compositions now serving as a springboard for this expanded ensemble’s improvisational contributions.
Said other members are Josh Cole (electric bass), Mike Smith (electric keyboards), Karen Ng (alto saxophone/clarinet), Colin Fisher (tenor saxophone), Brodie West (alto saxophone/clarinet), Ted Crosby (alto saxophone/bass clarinet), Kurt Newman (electric guitar), Jay Anderson (electronic hand percussion) and Blake Howard (congas).
These compositions are structured with odd-metered riffs as the foundation, with instant arrangements informed by the improvisations that occur throughout the pieces, often cued or conducted by Dunsmuir.
The nature of this music is heavily dependent on real-time composing/arranging, and a distinct aspect of the group’s character is the conversational element of these ten musical personalities interacting with each other, as well as within the framework of the melodic and rhythmic components of the compositions. The wide range of musical influences and vocabularies brought together in this group defines the uniqueness of this music: it is a meeting of emerging and mid-career musicians, some self-taught and others trained, with a combination of seasoned touring session players; composers of both through-composed, as well as improvisational, frameworks for large ensembles; and, in the case of band leader Dunsmuir, 20+ years of deep listening and music knowledge from working in Toronto’s long-standing record stores.
Dun-Dun Band very much takes influence from and pride in the direct links it has to such longstanding local/regional leftfield jazz and jazz-adjacent bands as Smith’s Muskox and Mike Smith Company; West’s Eucalyptus, Drumheller, and his and Cole’s Brodie West Quintet; Cole and Ng’s Kind Mind; Newman and Howard’s Nashville Minimalism Unit; Fisher’s Not The Wind, Not The Flag; Anderson’s Badge Epoque Ensemble; and the ensemble that precedes all of the others mentioned and from which Dunsmuir has taken a huge amount of inspiration over the past 20+ years, Howard’s GUH.
The group’s debut cassette EP, Riff Ref, was released by Dark Matter Tapes in March 2023, followed by their debut full-length LP Pita Parka, Pt. I: Xam Egdub, released by Ansible Editions in May 2024. Pita Parka, Pt. II : Nim Egduf is the culmination of a trilogy (the Riff Ref EP, and Pt.1), bookending 10 years of the band developing it’s sound.