"This is going to be the most exciting solstice yet," says ElementSircus co-founder and co-organizer/Absent Sound performer Dave Fort about what appears to be E-Sircus number 11. "I feel like the Sircus is a real strong community-based event this year."

It'll be hard to top the last solstice celebration in June, which featured instant jam wizardry from sound carrier Damo Suzuki (ex-Can), babbling psycho scat over Absent Sound's drone for what seemed like well over two hours at Ruines des Trappistes in St. Norbert under a clear moonlit sky.

But these community solstice events are not about singular one-upmanship - celebrity or otherwise. Instead, ElementSircus is all about the whole arc of celebration and, as a commitment to this, the lineup for the Winter E-Sircus 2007 is as great as ever - or even a bit better because of the diverse nature of the acts presented. How about this for a pre-Christmas gift idea? U streetists would be hard-pressed to find anything to attend with this much variety on the longest night of the year. Do something different - give the gift of solstice!

"There's definitely a higher order of organization this year. We've been doing this for so many years now that a lot of people got it down. They know what to do. There's a core of people: the guys in Mahogany Frog, Kristen Andrews from Ragpickers, and Paulette LaFortune from Sweet Spot Productions - and it goes well beyond that. There are many people involved," Fort says, before detailing the kickoff treats and scheduled Sircus entertainment deets.

"We're going to have some speakers at 7:45, and we're going to have a ceremony at the start. We're going to have some Aboriginal speakers talking a little bit about some new world order stuff and some spirituality and ancient wisdom.

"We're all really exited about a number of new acts, including Momentum Ariel Dance. They're new to the solstice," Fort continues. "Brian Besart put together a bunch of filmmakers to do projection throughout the night, too. There's four of five of them, and what they project will act as lighting in a way. Together they're called the Image Farmers. They're Greg Hanec (sushi specialist, art instructor), Dave Dagleish, Mike Germaine (Hummers, ex-XOXO, Banned from Atlantis), and Ed Ackerman."

The Sircus powers have vowed to achieve a diverse musical balance - and to a strong degree they have, experimenting with less experimentation by adding more rock and pop acts than usual - showing a commitment to thinking outside the cookie-cutter blinders box which sinks most event programming. The classy but sassy Absent Sound are soundly absent this time: "We just decided to move over, put on the show, and let someone else play," Fort says.

ElementSircus 2007 is at the Pyramid Cabaret on Dec. 21. It features the head-chopping axe-riff rage of Big Trouble in Little China, the club-filtered, Deep Purpled, quasi-classical psych-rock of festival mainstays Mahogany Frog, the weird Antigravity Project, and the many usual sideshow nail biters/rakers which end up being the savvy star attractions in my streetbeatin' opinion: Consider those show-stopping Fire Pyxies and more unusual usuals. Tix R available @ Music Trader, Ragpickers Anti-Fashion Emporium & Bookstore, online at www.mysweetspotproductions.com, or by phone at 1.204.480.8565. Hit www.myspace.com/elementsircus for more info.

"It's the first time we've played at the ElementSircus," says Tigerrr Beat lead vocalist/keys/synth guy Christopher Samms (ex-Black Photographs). Samms says he and drummer Mitch Dixon have been band buddies since high school. Together with bassist Russell Wiebe, the trio have wowed curious Winnipeg pop fans - only Tigerrr Beat are smarter than the usual pop practitioners because they smash different genres together to squish up new takes on a largely Beatled-to-death genre. Ear-check their self-released six-song EP, Tigerrr Beat.Kill! - and U'll see why T-Beat are being featured at the E-Sircus.

"We play pop with some punk elements - with some dance ability fundamentals," Samms says. "It's also experimental. We try to keep it balanced. We've mixed pop with grunge on most of the songs."
"My live show will probably be all new material," says experimental one-man band Mark Wohlgemuth, involved "loosely" with Unraveled Broken Orchestra. "I mix stuff with a laptop, a recent Yamaha keyboard, and an old guitar."

As the quasi-anagrammed Kram Ran, Wohlgemuth released an amazing experi-disc of imaginative works titled When I Move, on his own Wooly Records. He says a new acoustic album is on the way. "I'll have my acoustic guitar and a laptop at the Sircus. You will hear loud intense music that will hopefully make a lot of people's heads burst."

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