Last time we talked, you told me about your reluctance to take on acts that were not from your general geographic vicinity. Does that stem from some sort of realization that there's something there, in the Montreal music circuit?

Wilke: That whole issue is multifaceted. On the one hand, there really has not been a shortage of acts with whom we've wanted to work. When all is said and done, though, we are a very small label. Given the way we work with bands and how much work every release is, we are limited as to the number of records we can put out. We realized very quickly that, hands down, we'd rather develop a relationship with bands and see them face to face, as opposed to having masters and art work delivered in the mail and never really getting to know people. Whether or not we'll be able to always do that, it's impossible to say. If and when the right project from afar comes along--and right not just musically but right in the sense of the people behind it, people with whom we're comfortable working--we will consider that. But so far, that has not happened.

You mentioned in passing during our last conversation that the Montreal music scene was divided along linguistic lines. Most of the music you release is instrumental, but I'm wondering if you could tell me a little more about this?

Wilke: Well, I would ask you to add to your notes, that...please do not stress the division along linguistic lines because it is a very big cliché regarding Montreal and Quebec more generally. Journalists love to write about how there are two solitudes here, and it's really not the case.

Let me take a different tack then. I guess that at one point you got a call from Kranky and they asked you for the rights to release Godspeed's f#a#oo--what were your feelings toward that?

Wilke: It actually didn't work that way. It's a messy sensitive chapter in our little boring story. We had no contact with Kranky and continue to have very little contact with them. It's the band that has a relationship with them.

A copy of the album--so the story goes--got into Kranky's hands through one of the band members. Kranky then contacted that individual and said, "We received your record, we love it, why are you contacting us?" And then it rolled from there; Kranky offered to do the CD version of it.

We were not pleased, to put it mildly. We saw that record as a Constellation record and would certainly have moved very quickly to release a CD version. It created a fair amount...well, not really...it created a great amount of tension between Constellation and the band. It was a very difficult time.

After digesting it and getting over it, we realized we were going to have to roll with the punches and see what came of it. During the couple of months when tensions were running high, the record was getting rave critical responses, and that's really what drew the parties together eventually. That, and the overt overtures from at least one of the core members, who has turned out to be one of our best friends. He tried really hard to reestablish some kind of working relationship and to get over the wounds that were inflicted with those decisions.

When Slow Riot came out, they worked very hard to make sure that Constellation made the vinyl version. Kranky didn't have to let that happen, the band didn't have to let that happen, but the band worked hard to make sure that we at least got to release their vinyl. From that very dark, dark time between the band and us, things have turned around 180 degrees. I don't know if I've answered your question, or if I've gone off on a tangent.

Of the ten CDs that you've put out I presume that you are proudest of one, or end up listening to one more than the others.

Wilke: I sound like a complete dork in saying that I really don't have a favorite. When things are looking dark or gloomy, one thing that Ian and I do take pride in is that there is not a single record that we are in the least regretful about releasing. During any particular time, there are certainly records that I listen to a whole lot more. In the spring for instance, when Do Make's Goodbye Enemy Airship... and A Silver Mt. Zion came out, I was walking on air because those two records were easily two of my favorite records this year. I feel ridiculous saying that because it sounds so self-promotional, but it's pretty satisfying to know that we are actually getting to release some of our favorite music.

Wilke: Mauro, one of the bassists for Godspeed, and his partner Kiva have started a performance space and vegetarian café. They've spent since late spring [working on it] and it is a desperately needed performance space in Montreal. We're trying to figure it out. Hopefully we'll start doing something once a month, or once every two months. This fall we have one show, the Frankie Sparo, that is going to happen up there in September. But we haven't had time to think beyond that as far as regular programming goes. The name of that space, I should mention, is Casa del Popolo.

Earlier you mentioned that there was a greater number of acts willing to play and record. Are there more venues springing up?

Wilke: No, aside from Popolo, which I said was desperately needed and I meant it. The live performance situation in Montreal is absolutely abysmal. There might be an underground loft venue that springs up and manages to stay afloat for a little while doing some shows. But there is still very, very little in the way of accessible, artist-friendly spaces to play here--except for our homes. And that really hasn't changed. If anything it has gotten worse.

Montreal has been notorious for a long time in having to pay to play in venues. Basically the band has to pay the band owners to access the stage: if they recoup it at the door, they do; if they don't, they don't. It's not artist friendly at all. So we're left pretty much to our own devices to find places to play that make sense for the band. Our last show, with the Do Makes and Fly Pan Am, was in an absolutely spectacular abandoned foundry in the old quarter of the city.

Can you tell me what's in store for the next six months at Constellation?

Wilke: Fly Pan Am has an EP coming out. It's three pieces and just under thirty minutes. They have basically remixed themselves in a live sense, again sticking to their relative level of intransigence. That's not what the band's about, but they make no apologies to anybody. The record will excite their fans and infuriate their detractors.

That's coming out in October, on the same date as 1-Speed Bike, which is Aiden, the Exhaust drummer and one of Godspeed's drummers also. It's more or less a samples and beats project. He actually samples a big chunk of Fly Pan Am, who was recording in the same studio at around the same time. There's some absolutely sublime stuff there. Aiden is a pretty large and interesting personality, and that shines through in his monologues included on the record. Then there's the Godspeed record, on which more ink than enough will be spilled, so I'll leave out the details. And the last thing we are releasing this fall is Frankie Sparo, who is originally from the west coast of Canada. He moved here maybe two-and-a-half years ago and someone passed us a tape of his. He is an incredible songwriter--we've been threatening not to refer to him as a singer/songwriter. Calling him a singer/songwriter casts him in a space where he doesn't want to be and fails miserably to describe what he is up to. It's a pretty sparse record in terms of instrumentation, but it is incredibly well arranged.

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