Miracle Territory is an apt name for the newest project of Peterborough-based musician and producer, Michael Cloud Duguay. When speaking about the goals for the nascent promotions and programming collective focused on putting on all-ages shows featuring local musicians, Duguay conjures a vision for something that fits the dictionary definition, namely “an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment” almost exactly.

Given that the project has already seen two intimate concerts come to fruition at Take Cover Books in Peterborough’s East City, there have been some witnesses (myself included) who can attest to this statement. With more planned in the coming months including an April 20th show at Sadleir House set to feature Montreal-based artist Eve Parker Finley alongside local artists Corpus Colossal and STILLIE, there will be plenty of opportunities for others to share in the experience.

The first of the two shows under the Miracle Territory banner took place on February 17th and featured Fredericton, New Brunswick chamber-pop outfit, Pallmer, who have been touring their recent album Swimming alongside Peterborough’s Fittonia which features the songs of Shannon Culkeen. On that night, Fittonia’s rotating line-up was filled out by Cormac Culkeen, Duguay on keyboards and vocals, and Gabrielle Rekai on trombone.

On March 7th, Miracle Territory featured Constantines’ Steven Lambke alongside an experimental husband and wife duo called BIRDLAND made up of John Bird and Lorraine Land.

The idea of bringing out-of-town artists to play alongside local talent is important to Duguay and is motivated by a will to both showcase these talents to the people of Peterborough, but also showcasing Peterborough to artists.

“I love to just show people around this town,” he said with a laugh. “I think it's really important that in a small, relatively remote community like Peterborough, that we are being exposed to other artistic expressions and ideas, as opposed to just exclusively what exists here.”

Duguay’s passion for the local scene and creating community is evident and when he speaks about his work, it’s always with a great sense of humility and awareness of the work of others. Indeed, his projects these days are typified by a growing network of collaborations; an aspect of his work he hopes to see grow organically through Miracle Territory. 

While he released an album of solo material entitled Saint Maybe, last year also saw Duguay take part in a weekly residency over the summer at Jethro’s where he accompanied a diverse array of local and out-of-town artists for improvisational genre-spanning ensemble sets with the likes of Alex Lukashevsky, Ryan Perks, Mridul Harbhajanka, and New Hermitage — the latter of with whom he recorded a forthcoming album under the name Scions alongside Joyful Joyful.

Duguay also found time last year to start a new band, Valleyspeak — a dreamy jam-oriented motorik outfit — in which he serves as vocalist and guitarist alongside Nathan Truax, Ryan Perks, and Wyatt Burton.   

Growing up in Peterborough prior to his decision to move away in 2012, Duguay has a deep respect for the artistic and musical history of the City and is quick to point out how he owes the people who were active in that scene in the early mid-late 2000s credit for launching the career he has now.

“I wouldn't be an artist if it weren't for the all-ages venues that operated in Peterborough when I was a teenager — The Spill and The Gordon Best — if it weren't for those two places, I would not be a professional artist these days, and that's just an absolute fact,” he told me when we sat down for an interview in his studio.

Early on in our discussion Duguay popped up to retrieve a case of posters of concerts and festivals that he helped organize which featured the likes of Charlie Glasspool, Kat Burns, Shotgun Jimmie, Laura Barret, Patrick Walsh, Hooded Fang, Wax Mannequin, Fiver, “Mean Mister Jarvis,” The Burning Hell, among many others.

“If it weren't for the people who were putting on shows like Jill Staveley and the folks who ran The Spill back in the day, you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing,” he said before noting the importance of all-ages venues in the city and Miracle Territory’s intention to create a scene that welcomes all age-groups while making use of non-conventional spaces around Peterborough to put on shows.

One of the posters he pulled out was designed by none other than Jeff Macklin of Jackson Creek Press, who according to Duguay, made them for free back in the day.

“I pay him now,” he joked, adding that Macklin’s kindness more than fifteen years ago was borne out of his belief in what Duguay and others were doing back then. 

Coming full circle, Macklin designed the poster for the Steven Lambke and BIRDLAND show while local artist Jane Dukes designed the poster for Pallmer and Fittonia’s performance.

“It was important for me to work with Jeff right away,” Duguay told me. Jeff and I have such a long history of doing shows together…I really think of Jeff's style as sort of just like a quintessential Peterborough aesthetic.”

The continuity between Duguay’s past experience and current enterprise is a testament to the depth of connection within the artistic communities in Peterborough. While many of the places Duguay grew up playing have since closed, many of the people are still actively performing or making art around town, generally making things happen, or make a point of stopping by while on tour. 

The way generations interact with each other is an important part of Duguay’s understanding of what Miracle Territory is trying (and one can easily argue already succeeding) to create.

“I think about the excitement and the energy I encountered as a young artist and promoter in this town a long time ago, so much of it had to do with people from away,” Duguay said, reflecting again on some of the inspiration for the line-ups of previous and forthcoming Miracle Territory shows and the importance of mixing the hyper-local with influences from elsewhere.

Upon his return, Duguay says that he was amazed by everything that was going on and humbly states that projects like Miracle Territory were inspired by what was already happening around town. Miracle Territory, he said, is really a formalized name for the work he was already undertaking booking, playing, and promoting shows in town.

“Last summer, I put on probably thirty shows in Peterborough,” he said. “At a certain point, I was like, if I just give this a name, and start doing it formally, then it'll actually be able to be something that can be sustainable instead of me just burning myself out.”  

Future plans in the works for Miracle Territory include growing it into a self-sustaining collective supported by provincial and federal grants whose mandate is to put on local all ages shows and eventually festivals. 

Duguay recognizes that this kind of scaling up comes with risks of exploitation of artists and community members' labour and good will while upholding the tastes of central figures. Because of this awareness, Duguay is emphatic that as this project develops the connections he forms through it are fostered through receiving input and doing the legwork involved in seeking out new artists to highlight and working to decentralize the work to create opportunities for others under the Miracle Territory banner. 

“I've seen examples of it being so amazing and powerful and positive and helpful and genuinely community oriented and genuinely drawing on the needs and wishes of community and I've seen small town, sort of like cultural programmers, just exploiting everything they come into touch with,” Duguay said.

As with the rest of his work, these statements and aspirations are backed up by action as the upcoming April 20th show at Sadleir House is being presented alongside Otonabeats, Trent University Alternative Arts Collective (TUAAC) and sponsored by Arthur. As with the first two events, the show’s posters have been designed by a local artist with this one being designed by Kathryn Durst. 

As for future plans, Duguay is aiming for monthly concerts until June after which time he aims to take a summer break to wind up for the release of both his new solo album and the forthcoming Scions record in the Fall.

Anyone interested in learning more about Miracle Territory or getting involved can email Duguay at miracle.territory.ptbo@gmail.com and follow on Instagram for updates on upcoming events.