The new duo Arid Landscapes‘ self-titled debut on CD and digitally. Composed of gifted and adventurous Canadian players Dan Pitt (guitar & electronics) and Noah Franche-Nolan (piano, synth, electronics), the band successfully marries textural and jazz-informed lyricism as well as timbral exploration with subtle rhythmic drive. Moreover, they’ve achieved an elegant balance between electroacoustic manipulation and pure instrumental sonorities, allowing their imagination in both realms to shine equally brightly.
The name of the new duo from guitarist Dan Pitt and keyboardist Noah Franche-Nolan Arid Landscapes offers a glimpse into the group’s origin story. The two young players met while both were enrolled in the University of Toronto’s jazz program, collaborating in a number of contexts before Franche-Nolan departed for New York City and later to his hometown of Vancouver. These geographic distances initially felt like an obstacle in terms of nurturing their creative rapport, but with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote creative partnerships became the norm. This period birthed an extended work from the pair, produced through exchanging recordings online and employing an array of electronic tactics—both in the performances and in the post-production phase. This culminated in the second track on Franche-Nolan’s 2023 album Portraits From The Interior World I, “Arid Landscapes.”
On their self-titled debut full-length, the Vancouver-Toronto outfit continues to document their distinct perspective from the nexus of textural electronics, harmonic sophistication, and instrument-driven sonics. This time, though. Rather than crafting the music over the internet, Pitt actually flew to Vancouver for sessions at Franche-Nolan’s studio and Brentwood Presbyterian Church, in the suburb of Burnaby. The result is a masterful and subtle affair that weaves electronic treatments and timbre-based exploration on their respective instruments, producing music that embraces several traditions while also observing these practices from their peripheries. Pitt and Franche-Nolan’s common training in jazz is audible in the deft contouring of lines and in the ease with which they glide between different harmonic regions.
Tracks like their gorgeous closer “The Optimist” might even recall some of Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays‘ early ethereal forays. Yet the way that the various ingredients of their music are configured often resists genre mapping. Without knowing the players, one could be just as likely to imagine that their oblong, overlapping ostinati, weightless atmospherics, twitchy digital detailing, and bubbling pulsations could emerge from immersion in other musical fields such as ambient or the softer end of experimental rock. Mastered by kindred spirit, Vancouver’s François Houle, Arid Landscapes unfurls patiently and lyrically while simmering with brisk yet gentle modulations of colour. It’s a testament to the magic that can happen when performers manage to balance nimble expression on their instrument with a keen ear for electronic possibility.
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photo by Keessa Lynch
Noah Franche-Nolan is a JUNO and Western Canada Music Awards-nominated pianist, improviser, composer, and producer based in Vancouver, BC. He leads the Noah Franche-Nolan Trio, featuring bassist Jodi Proznick and drummer Nicholas Bracewell. This trio also serves as the rhythm section for the Indo-Jazz Fusion group Raagaverse, led by Shruti Ramani. He has also enjoyed concert appearances mounted by Vancouver International Jazz Festival, the Stone and the Lincoln Center, while collaborating with the likes of Dutch violinist Oene Van Geel, Brooklyn drummer Tima Volozh, as well as celebrated Canadian artists such as Mili Hong, Aline Homzy, Lina Allemano, Arvind Ramdas, and Parmela Attariwala. Franche-Nolan has engaged in various artistic endeavours that traverse disciplinary bounds, including creating a live score for the 1922 silent flm Häxan, with acclaimed violin experimentalist Meredith Bates in a commission from Vancouver’s independent theatre, The Cinematheque. He also composed the score for New York flmmaker Talha Jalal’s documentary Rite of Passage, which debuted at the NYC Docs Festival in 2023 and Vancouver playwright Shelby Satterthwaite’s play Light Rapid Transit.
Toronto-based guitarist and composer Dan Pitt has performed across Canada and the USA and his music has been reviewed and broadcasted worldwide. Leader of an eponymous trio (featuring Alex Fournier on bass and beloved drummer Nick Fraser) and quintet (this trio plus woodwinds courtesy of Naomi McCarroll-Butler and Patrick Smith) he has also had the opportunity to work with noteworthy artists such as Pat Collins, David Braid, Terry Promane, Andrew Downing, Dave Young, Terry Clarke, Lina Allemano, Tim Berne and Michael Attias. Pitt holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance Jazz from the University of Toronto. His mentors both within and beyond the school have included such revered artists as David Restivo, Geoff Young, Jim Lewis, Terry Promane, Mike Murley, Phil Nimmons. Brad Shepik, Tony Malaby, Ben Monder and David Torn. The year of his graduation, he was presented the Stingray Rising Star Award as part of the Jazz Youth Summit at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. His work has since been recognized through grants from funding bodies like the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Writing on the Dan Pitt Quintet’s 2024 album Horizontal Depths, Sepp Wejwar from Austria’s Skug called it “pure jazz enjoyment from the frst to the last note,” praising its “diversity of compositions and the delicate interplay of the wind instruments, both solo and in concert with the bandleader’s guitar.”
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artist: Arid Landscapes duo
title: Arid Landscapes
out: September 19th, 2025 on Signal Chain Records (CD/DL)
genres: ambient, experimental jazz, electroacoustic
RIYL: Eivind Aarset, Fennesz & Sakamoto, Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays, Oren Ambarchi, Christian Wallumrød.
Tracklist:
1. prelude (5.17)
2. rmtk (5.52)
3. nova (2.27)
4. weathered (12.41)
5. summerhill (3.44)
6. union (3.01)
7. the dust storm (4.38)
8. blink i (3.48)
9. blink ii (6.22)
10. the optimist (5.21)
Line up:
NOAH FRANCHE-NOLAN — piano, keyboards, synthesisers, audio processing.
DAN PITT — electric guitar, effect pedals, live looping.
All compositions by NOAHFRANCHE-NOLAN and DAN PITT © SOCAN
Recorded at Noah’s Studio in Vancouver, BC and Brentwood Presbyterian Church in Burnaby, BC.
mixed by NOAH FRANCHE-NOLAN, mastered by FRANÇOIS HOULE,
photography by CAROLINE SMOLSKI, design and layout by DAN PITT