About Siren Recordings
Siren Recordings is a digital, multimodal platform that operates as boutique, studio, and archive. We seek to connect scholars, artists, and lovers of sonic poetry in an online community. Following Ed Sanders, we believe that perfection comes in the poetic triad: “the spoken text/the text as beauteously presented on the page/the text as performed.” We incorporate elements of sound and music into recordings of poetry performances to emphasize the affective, social experience of poetic work.
We value experimentation in form, both contemporary and modern. We renew older poetic works by treating the archive as a participant in the work we are making; archival play ensures that our releases blend contemporary technology with influential poetry. These values seek to serve one, ultimate goal: to contribute to the siren call that warns of the diminishing time we spend in the archaic situation of gathering to hear someone speak.
Siren is led by three individuals:
Andrew Whiteman, Creative Director
Andrew is the Juno-award winning guitarist behind Broken Social Scene and a SSHRC-funded PhD student at Concordia University. He has spent a lifetime living and learning from poetry and its audio companions.
Kelly Baron, Managing Director
Kelly is a stuffy academic at heart who loves all things experimental. She believes that form communicates what content cannot. She has a PhD in Canadian Literature, and with Andrew DuBois, is editing the forthcoming Sing in Me, Oh Muse: New Essays at the Crossroads of Music and Literature (Bloomsbury, 2025).
Brandon Hocura, Archival Director
Brandon Hocura is a sound artist, filmmaker, writer, and archivist. He is the founder and creative director of the record label and publisher Séance Centre. He leads the archival efforts of Siren.
Any queries, submissions, or archival recommendations can be sent to admin@sirenrecordings.com.
Siren’s supervisory board is led by Kelly Baron, and includes the following individuals:
Jeff Alessandrelli: Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of the poetry collection Fur Not Light (2019), which The Kenyon Review called an “example of radical humility … its poems enact a quiet but persistent empathy in the world of creative writing.” Alessandrelli directs the nonprofit book press/record label Fonograf Editions.
Alana Wilcox: Alana Wilcox is the Editorial Director of Coach House Books and one of the founding editors of the uTOpia series, which includes uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto, The State of the Arts: Living with Culture in Toronto, The Edible City: Toronto's Food from Farm to Fork and GreenTOpia: Towards a Sustainable Toronto.
Helen Britton: As a business owner, artist manager and industry stakeholder for over twenty years, Helen Britton’s approach to the music business has focused on developing the infrastructure to support long-term, multi-dimensional artist careers. CEO and President of Six Shooter Inc., the management division of Six Shooter Records, Britton oversees a roster that includes Tanya Tagaq, July Talk, Whitehorse, Zaki Ibrahim, The Dead South and William Prince.
Kaie Kellough: Kaie Kellough is a novelist, poet, and sound performer. His work emerges at a crossroads of social engagement and formal experiment. Kaie’s writing has been awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize and the QWF Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Kaie’s vocal performance, recorded audio, and electronic narrative explore migration and the suspension of arrival. Since 2011 he has created mixed media compositions with saxophonist and synthesist Jason Sharp.