Preview: Sonic Circuits '07
This Friday marks the start of D.C.'s Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music, which will run through September 29 at venues around the city. The festival traces its roots back to 1993, when the American Composer's Forum (ACF) curated a traveling program that was hosted by ACF chapters across the country and offered to any venue interested in presenting music based on electronic technology. The D.C. chapter of ACF first hosted the festival in 2000, and while the national chapter stopped its program in 2004, D.C. has continued to mount the annual event. Last year's festival featured just four nights worth of performances, but this year the event has grown to seventeen performances over three weeks that feature over seventy artists from around the globe.
"Experimental music is an easy classifier for music which can't be pigeon holed into popular genres," said Jeff Surak, Executive Director of the festival. Instead of using the term as a label for the music, he chooses to look at the music from the audience's point of view. "Some of the sounds are seductive, and some are harsh, but in the end it's all beautiful music and a celebration of audio extremes."
Image from the Sonic Circuits website
The broad array of artists Surak chose for this year's festival reflects his open-minded outlook. "Within one night you can expect to hear artists working on the cutting edge, just outside such genres as jazz, rock, or electronica, but truly the music defies classification," Surak said.
Despite having gathered talent from all over the world, Surak is quick to point out that this is the District's festival. Highlighting the importance of the festival's local connections, he affirms,"The local experimental community is vibrant and continues to grow, and the festival is a showcase for D.C. area artists and a platform for collaboration and networking."
Surak has lofty ambitions for future installments of the festival and if his experience with this year's festival is any indication, his goals are readily attainable. "Many artists asked to take part in the festival based on the success of last year's festival. I'm already getting requests from people to play in 2008, so I never had to advertise for submissions, either I asked people who I knew whose work I enjoyed or people asked me if they could play."
The Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music begins this Friday, September 7, with a performance at The Velvet Lounge, and runs though September 29. A full schedule, listing of artists, and venue information are available here. Tickets can be purchased at the door of the given venue on the night of the performance. Festival passes can be purchased here for $96.