The Muffins in Rockville in 1979
It’s a somewhat ludicrous thing to say about an event that spotlights so many alienating artists, but in its 10th year, the Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music feels, well, kind of big.
This year there are veteran prog and avant-rock draws, like Magma and Univers Zero, and the noise and [...]
Sonic Circuits announced part of its 2010 festival lineup today, and the headliners may come as a surprise: French giants Magma (whose drummer and bandleader, Christian Vander, is pictured above) heads up the bill. Magma are legends in prog-rock circles, essentially creating their own indescribable genre of rock music, "zeuhl," in the early 1970s. Zeuhl [...]
Tomorrow at 4 p.m. you can join 184 of your fellow experimental music lovers—although some may just be experimental-curious—in a tunnel off the Capital Crescent Trail to record noise that will be mixed into 1.8 second sound loops. The loops will be included on a compilation that will benefit the annual Sonic Circuits music festival.
Layne [...]
Do you like musical adventures? Do you like endless loops? Per an intriguing e-mail I received this morning, from a local experimental musician who didn't sign his name: "on sunday may 23, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, 185 people will gather in a tunnel running beneath the c&o canal near georgetown. there we will make [...]
Almost 40 years after the fact, Faust remains a standard-bearer of Krautrock, the German experimental rock movement of the early 1970s.
Just don't call Faust a Krautrock band.
For one thing, says Jean-Herve Péron, one of the group's two remaining original members, Faust doesn't have many fans in Germany, even though it's still based there. For another, none [...]
Advanced Theory posits that when a genius creates a piece of art that is largely perceived as bad, it does not necessarily mean he's lost his touch. Rather, it might mean that he's doing something that you cannot understand, because he has Advanced beyond you.
Jandek–who performs Saturday at Velvet Lounge as part of the Sonic [...]
Personally, I like to think he's more of an AMM guy than a Whitehouse fan.
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Tomorrow afternoon Artomatic will host performances by, basically, every man or woman who has ever attempted to make noisy music in Washington, DC during the last five years. It's going to be nine-plus hours of drones, bleeps, bloops, and scratches curated by local avant-music festival Sonic Circuits. Nine hours. Well, you don't have to watch [...]
Sonic Circuits just sent out a sneak-preview of this year's festival lineup and it looks like it's going to be a watershed year for DC's music nerds. The majesty of this year's bill is rivaled only by its inscrutability to the vast majority of listeners:Faust, Tim Hecker, Jandek!? There's a whole movie about how it's [...]
Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center has had a busy week. With three shows curated by the Sonic Circuits crew in four days, the cozy Silver Spring gallery has given experimental music fans in the District plenty of opportunities to get their fill. Thursday's performances by Fast Forty, Area C, and Mem1 provided a pleasant bookend to [...]
