The 13th annual Sonic Circuits Experimental Music Fest is back, lasting nearly a week instead of three days this year.
On Sunday, Sonic Circuits finished up another year of challenging perceptions on what music is, exactly.
Layne Garrett has been experimenting with sound his entire life, but today he invites the public to join him for the SIlver Spring Sound Machine, the audience participation portion of Sonic Circuits.
Close your eyes if you want the dual guitar drone of San Francisco’s Barn Owl to transport you to a dark and beautiful place. We talked to them in advance of Sunday’s Sonic Circuits’ show.
The Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music kicked off last night at AFI with one of many collaborative performances. Check out our comprehensive guide to the festival to help sift through the racket.
The Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music came to its conclusion on Saturday, the same night that many other District residents attended some free event out in Columbia. While one of the highlights of the festival is the caliber of the talent that comes in from overseas (such as Magma, Merzbow, Fennesz and Richard Pinhas), a large chunk of the festival lineup hails from the D.C. metro area and Sonic Circuits regularly showcases these artists throughout the year. The third District of Noise compilation almost succeeds in being as sonically wide-reaching as the festival lineup, while also giving D.C. residents a taste of the very talented local experimental music community.
French guitarist Richard Pinhas is no stranger to groundbreaking musicianship. In the 1970s, he played guitar for the influential band Heldon before breaking away from the traditional format. The result has been thirty years of collaborations and solo efforts that push the envelope of what a guitar album can sound like. His most recent release, Metal/Crystal contains dizzying, swirling guitar melodies, but also hissing, hypnotic drone that threatens to overwhelm the listener with its weight. It’s alternately very dark and very freeing; the result of two years of tragedy for Pinhas.
Last night marked the sixth night of Sonic Circuits, and culminated in the release party for the double-sided album District of Noise Vol. 3 – 100 Lock Grooves on Sonic Circuits curator Jeff Surak’s Zeromoon label. BLK W/BEAR, Tone Ghosting, Sean Peoples and Cole Goins — all featured on the record — played alongside Megan Remy of Philadelphia’s U.S. Girls. Peoples and Goins alternated with ambient DJ sets in between performances, keeping those in attendance filtering in and out of Silver Spring print studio Pyramid Atlantic’s upstairs gallery in an effort to escape the stifling heat building up on the second floor.
Wednesday evening, Italian-born veteran composer and multimedia artist Andrea Centazzo came to the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage as part of this year’s Sonic Circuits Festival Experimental Music. With an artistic career spanning the last four decades, Centazzo has recorded over 150 albums and DVDs, written three operas, eight books, and created three one-man multimedia shows, from which he drew most of his material for last night’s performance. Centazzo’s previous creative endeavors with big band jazz, opera and minimalist composition all come into play with his multimedia performances, merging syncopated jazz rhythms with East Asian drumming and European religious choral music.
Sonic Circuits, D.C.’s annual experimental music festival, is in full swing this week, and tonight marks the second night of performances at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and the Pyramid Atlantic gallery in Silver Spring. Tonight’s “Night of 100 Lock Grooves –District of Noise Vol. 3 Release Party” at Pyramid Atlantic features Philadelphia-based one-woman-band U.S. Girls and D.C.-based DJs BLK w/BEAR, Sean Peoples, Tone Ghosting and Cole Goins.
