release date: 12.06.2026
David Occhipinti launches his new album on Elastic Recordings, Looking Glass, which—like his other recent offerings—showcases his intricate vision of ensemble writing alongside his formidable and singular guitar work.
Canadian guitarist and composer David Occhipinti may have ostensible roots in jazz, but even as early as his self-titled 1997 debut, he has demonstrated a penchant for detailed writing that employs oblique harmonies, while excavating unconventional timbres from his instrument. Since that time, Occhipinti has moved progressively away from genre-segregated convention to embrace a singular pluralism that gestures toward several styles without comfortably settling into any. His 2012 release Camera unveiled the Camera Ensemble, featuring a varied cast of collaborators, many of whom are equally adept at interpreting his intricate scores and improvisation. Last year’s Camera Lucida elaborated further on this methodology, but between those albums he put out These Out of Infinite (2019). Its release on the Canadian Music’s Centrediscs imprint is telling as the album showcases his growing body of vocal and chamber music with performances from the likes of Carla Huhtanen, Mingjia Chen, Robin Dann and Alex Hetherington the last of whom appears on the present collection.
The new release in question, Looking Glass—out June 12th on Elastic Recordings—continues along a similar trajectory to this 2019 disc, orbiting the concentrated core instrumentation of string trio plus guitar. The album opens with Six Bagatelles, a set that’s as diverse as it is compact, clocking in at just shy of seven minutes. Each individual piece boasts a taut form paired with formidable colouristic imagination. The frst bagatelle is somewhat of an aberration, alternating jagged unisons and conversational counterpoint. The second places quietly insistent pulses in the lower register of the cello for most of its duration, atop which Occhipinti, and later the remaining bowed strings, unfold dreamy chromatic lyricism. The briefest and most harmonically transparent movement follows. Anchored by percussive scratching from the viola and sweeping autoharp from Occhipinti, the violin and cello trace weightless melodic arcs that are tied together with a contoured guitar figure at the piece’s conclusion. The ensuing pieces continue to present compelling orchestration in bite-size morsels—melodic guitar harmonics highlighted with bowed unisons, pizzicati that accompany legato guitar swells, and even warm, atmospheric overdriven tones matched with assertive marcati.
Occhipinti’s ensemble includes his long-time collaborators Aline Homzy (violin) and Steven Dann (viola), bringing Swedish cellist Maria Zachariadou into the fold for the frst time. She and Occhipinti met in 2010 at the Banff Centre and demoed some of the material that would subsequently emerge on Camera. Shortly after they met, she began playing with the London Philharmonia before assuming her current role as Associate Principal Cellist with the BBC Philharmonic. She generously few over from the UK to participate in these sessions. The thirteen and a half-minute Lewis Carroll paean, Frumious Bandersnatch, follows the bagatelles and offers a more extensive exploration of that same instrumentation’s various possibilities. Its witty, episodic nature and knotty harmonic language might trace faint connections to the early 20th century, but there’s a crucial difference that shatters this resemblance altogether.
This work serves to showcase an inventive customization Occhipinti has made to his guitar that expands the piece’s colour palette well beyond the expected confnes of the instruments employed. The guitarist had his luthier Doug
Harrison install a pickup above the instrument’s nut granting him access to the pitches found above his left hand’s fngered notes in addition to the conventional set—giving him up to twelve simultaneous notes. Occhipinti routes this extra pickup to a separate amplifer, reinforcing their mirror-image relationship through stereo separation, while offering these unusual microtonal hues their own distinct space. “I have felt a bit like Alice going through the Looking Glass and discovering things that were nearby, yet outside the realm of our everyday realities,” he remarks, tying his choice of title (from the Jabberwocky ) to the material. Occhipinti pushes the peculiar palette of this piece even further by employing more pronounced effect processing at various points throughout.
The latter portion of the album sees various guests joining the strings and guitar. Renowned percussionist Beverley Johnston (who was recently recognized as an Offcer of the Order of Canada) is another frequent collaborator of the composer and her vibraphone, glockenspiel, and crotales add a glistening timbral veneer on the brief but luminous Sonyshnyky (Sunfowers), which honours the plight and resilience of Ukrainians. The aforementioned mezzo soprano Alex Hetherington—a staple of Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, and a past soloist with the National Arts Orchestra—features on two cuts starting with the warm, heartfelt Sotto le Stelle. The vocal writing on this tribute to Occhipinti’s step-mother, Maria seems to perfectly inhabit the singer’s body, and Occhipinti’s use of nylon string guitar only imbues the piece with further intimacy. Hetherington’s later appearance on You Stepped Out is far more playful, her broad, quasi-operatic delivery generating an absurd friction with the text and collage-like patchwork of the other parts (which includes throat-clearing, musical quotations and a Victrola obligato.) Soprano Charlotte Mundy sings on the similarly mischievous penultimate work, Who’s your dada? Collaborator to everyone from the TAK Ensemble to Liturgy, Bekah Simms to Eluvium, Mundy brings her characteristic lucid agility to this performance, which employs the word “dada” as its only lyric over spritely and colourful ensemble writing.
With Looking Glass, listeners continue to witness the development of David Occhipinti’s inquisitive compositional disposition and the crisp, evocative musicianship he and his close collaborators have cultivated. The recording traverses considerable emotional and aesthetic terrain, while including the contributions of various invitees, but Occhipinti’s distinctive and affable sonic personality produces cohesion throughout, making for a listen that engages and engrosses.
David Occhipinti is a Canadian composer and guitarist whose music crosses borders from jazz and improvised music, into contemporary classical music and beyond. Occhipinti has received two Chalmers Arts Fellowships, as well as JUNO nominations for his work as a recording artist. Among his nominated works are his critically acclaimed album Forty Revolutions in 2007; and Duologue, in collaboration with saxophonist Mike Murley, in 2003. Occhipinti has made eight recordings released as a leader, and contributed to many more as a co-leader and sideman. His most recent album was 2025’s Camera Lucida which features eight tracks performed by his Camera Ensemble that dovetail
elegant chamber writing with improvisational elements. Camera, (2012) was the frst recording with this ensemble, and washeralded by Occhipinti’s late mentor, the revered guitarist, Jim Hall as “an absolute work of art!”
Occhipinti has received commissions to compose works from the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, percussionist BeverleyJohnston (O.C.), harpist Erica Goodman, Kairos Percussion Quartet, Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, and RandomAccess Large Ensemble. His frst orchestral work, Saturnia (2022), was part of the Toronto Symphony’s ‘Explore the Score’ event that occurred at Roy Thomson Hall in October of 2022. Occhipinti has often performed as an improviser with Canadian jazz icons such as Lorne Lofsky, Order of Canada recipient Terry Clarke, He has performed and toured across Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Based in Toronto for most of his career, he also spent time studying in New York City with Jim Hall during the 1990s, as well as three years living in Italy.
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DAVID OCCHIPINTI – L O O K I N G G L A S S
Out: June 12th, 2026 on Elastic Recordings/ Occdav Music
(ER027/ OM 009 CD & Digital)
Tracklist:
1-6 SIX BAGATELLES
7 FRUMIOUS BANDERSNATCH
8 SONYSHNYKY (SUNFLOWERS)
9 SOTTO LE STELLE
10 WHO’S YOUR DADA?
11 YOU STEPPED OUT
Line up:
David Occhipinti – guitar & compositions,
Aline Homzy – violin, Steven Dann – viola, Maria Zachariadou – cello.
with:
Beverley Johnston – vibraphone, crotales (08), Alex Hetherington – mezzosoprano (09, 11), Charlotte Mundy – soprano (10).
Recorded at Revolution Studios — Toronto, Canada by Luke Schindler with assistant engineers Matteo Peraccini & Christine Stoesser.
Mixing engineer: Occdav. Mastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios. Cover art: Mascia Manunza. Design: Cristina Cannas. Photography: Jen Squires. Lyrics by David Occhipinti