Audio By Carbonatix
Swing out to the fringes of music and art tonight with the Pendulum New Music concert series as it presents the New West Electronic Arts and Music Organization Festival at the ATLAS Black Box Theater, 1125 18th Street in Boulder. The multi-disciplinary festival features the electro-acoustic music of ten artists from across the United States and Europe.
“We have different aesthetics for every concert. This particular show showcases the technological aspect of the music,” says Hsing-ay Hsu, artistic administrator for Pendulum. “Every piece involves a computer, either in the compositional process or in generating the sound.” Several of the pieces also include video and dance elements.
The music covers a wide spectrum of sonic possibilities and styles. “De Grizje Boom,” by Charles Nichols, is a piece for “tenor (meta)saxophone and computer processing” that places a groaning sax into an echoing abyss and then bathes it in gurgling, sweeping washes of electronics. Paul Hembree’s “Voltage Controlled Passacaglia” pairs live video projections of oscillating waveforms with three players performing abstract explorations of Moog synthesizer tones. Mesmeric, slowly morphing visuals of a belly dancer and flower-like digital images are accompanied by a haunting, hypnotic soundtrack of slowly shifting tones and otherworldly percussion in Freida Abtan’s “Yellow Flowers.” These artists and seven more provide an exciting evening that should please fans of electronic experimental genres such as IDM, glitch and ambient, or even fans of bands, like Radiohead, that draw material from them.
The show starts at 8 p.m., with a reception to follow; admission is free. More information can be found at www.cu-pendulum.com or by calling 303-492-8008.
Sat., Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m., 2007
