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The 804noise Fest is an all day experimental & noise festival held each year in Richmond, Virginia showcasing experimental & noise artists mainly from Virginia. All artists perform for the sake of exposure and community growth. Proceeds from the 2004 Festival went to benefit the Richmond Independent Media Center, a radical news resource for the Richmond community.
The 2nd Annual 804noise Festival was held on Sunday October 3rd at the Art Works Gallery. This years festival featured over 19 experimental and noise projects, visual artwork from local artists; information tables from local radical and independent organizations such as Richmond Indie Radio, Food Not Bombs, Richmond Queer Space Project, EFG Design, and more. On Saturday October 2nd, Art Works hosted a series of 804noise workshops on the subjects of circuit bending, community organizing, waveform interference patterns, VST Programming.
[Saturday October 2, 2004]
Art Works
320 Hull St. (just across the 14th St/Mayo Bridge Downtown)
Richmond, VA 23220
[4:00pm - 8:00pm]
FREE
804noise Fest 2004 (Workshop Series):
Community vs. Scene: Harm Stryker will talk about the idea behind the (areacode)noise concept, the potential of building a working network of experimental communities tied together by a common philosophy based on open community participation, and to speak about the politcal innuendos of noise and experimental media. [4:00pm]
Programming VST Plug-Ins: VST Plug-Ins, a Steinberg technology, have become industry standard in numerous host products for generating instruments and effect processing. This workshop will cover this standard and introduce methods for programming your own plug-ins. In addition, the workshop will provide some understanding of the science behind the software; scratching the surface on various digital signal processing (DSP) concepts. This workshop will be presented by Wayne aka FERALCATSCAN. [5:00pm]
Waveforms & Interference Patterns: Marty McCavitt aka Birds in the Meadow will present a workshop about waveform interfrence patterns, what they are, how researchers have used audio interference patterns to assist in inducing a temporary non-ordinary state of consciousness, and demonstrate how waveform interference is used as a primary audio source by the band "Birds in the Meadow", then providing examples of their use by other 20th century composers. [6:00pm]
Circuit Bending: Khate will be presenting a workshop on circuit-bending. Pioneered by Reed Ghazala in the late 1960's, circuit-bending involves the deliberate short-circuiting and re-wiring of a noise-making device to create a unique
electronic instrument. Popular targets for bending include inexpensive Casio keyboards and talking children's toys, but benders have performed surgery on everything from effects pedals to CD players to baby monitors. Khate will
give a brief overview of the history and growth of circuit-bending, share tips and techniques for getting started, and demonstrate some of the process. Some of her bent projects will be on display for participants to play with, and
there will be a raffle to win a circuit-bent Speak & Spell. [7:00pm]
[Sunday October 3, 2004]
Art Works
320 Hull St. (just across the 14th St/Mayo Bridge Downtown)
Richmond, VA 23220
12:00am - 10:00pm
$6 Tickets Available at Chop Suey Books & Exile $8 At The Door
804noise Fest 2004 (Main Event):
This years festival is going to feature visual installations, artwork, and sculptures by several local artists, info-shop tables from local radical organizations, and the following musical performers in this order:
[NO PICTURE]
Mark Richardson - Mark Richardson collects and writes about experimental music. His DJ sets,which incorporate drones, noise, and miscellaneous arcane audio, are
inspired in part by the idea of lost radio transmissions that have returned to earth from space.
[NO PICTURE]
Jabber Wocky - Jabber Wocky's style/sound falls in the audio collage/plunderphonics category. An artform mastered by the group Negativland in the 80's and early 90's where the artist takes recognizable mainstream music, talk radio, commercials, etc, samples it, manipulates and distorts it, strips away the ryhthm, then re-sequencing it to make something completely new and sometimes making a statement that wasn't intended by the original material.
Mix Tape For Adrian - Mix Tape For Adrian perform using drum machines,
pedals and samplers, making simple and to the point improvised electronic, somewhat danceable music with politically charge sampling.
Vilam Priest - Vilam Priest plays loop-based ambient and/or sound-collage music, primarily
using Frippertronic methods developed by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp in the
early 1970s: analog instrument signals are fed into a simple looping device
using volume swells to taper the attack, allowing the performer to work in
cumulative harmonic layers without producing a fixed beat. Priest plays a
Chapman Stick, which allows him to play
simple bass figures over the loop with one hand while improvising melodies,
manipulating loops, or feeding samples, with the other. The mood tends
toward down-tempo (often approaching zero), minor-key, contemplative
chill-out.
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Never Presence Forever - Never Presence Forever's sound revolves largely around a blend
of dark ambient/death industrial soundscapes often steeped in cryptic
personal exploration or apocalyptic undercurrents.
Harm Stryker - Harm Stryker is Kelly Nourse & Kenny Yates a politically and socially motivated experimental project, which employs carefully crafted samples, minimal sequencing, feedback & theremins, processed with filters, stomp boxes, and other effects to create a rich atmosphere of abstract rhythm & noise.
SC:ALL & Violet - SC:ALL is Scott Allison from Washington, D.C., and his music focuses on the processing and arrangements of recorded events (field recordings or what many people simply refer to as noise). Processing those sounds and re-presenting them using software specifically developed for real time interaction and composition. SC:ALL also works with sound sources external to the computer, finding ways in which to process those sounds and still find mutual correspondence between them and what happens with the computer. In the last few years he has been active in live performance venues on the east coast, and has also been involved with the process of organizing experimental listening events in the Washington DC area. Currently Scott is involved in a number of collaborative efforts with other similar minded artists and plan to release new work for the label Scarcelight Recordings sometime in 2005. SC:ALL will be Performing with Violet from Zeromoon Recordings at this years event. Violet is the current moniker for solo works by Jeff Surak, who has played in such projects as v., Normal Music, Critikal, Second Violin, -1348-, and
New Carrollton and a multitude of collaborations. Jeff has been creating experimental non-idiomatic music for more than 20 years and has several releases on his own label Zeromoon and along with several other labels. As Violet, Jeff's focus is on organic irrational compositions, using electro-acoustic instruments and tape/cd/vinyl manipulations. Violet has performed across the USA and in Europe.
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Laferrera - Laferrera is Jason Laferrera who also plays bass in the Richmond post punk outfit Gregor Samsa. Lafff holds his own with his brand of sugar coated misery in the form of rich texured instrumentation and IDMish production. Aside from performing with 804noise he has also designed the 2003 and 2004 804noise Fest flier.
Ting Ting Jahe - Ting Ting Jahe is Ben Scott, Tommy Birchett and Brooklyn, NY resident Ben Owen who organizes with Free103point9 in Brookyln. Ting Ting Jahe's sound is based on recylcing live audio from previous performances, found sound, disected turn tables and needles, laptop improvisation, etc.
[No Picture]
Monolith Zero Monolith Zero is Adam Hudson, his solo live performances consist of gaping atmospheres of almost silent drone cut with short burst of harsh noise, usually lasting between 5 and 15 minutes total.
Drums Like Machine Guns - Drums Like Machine Guns started by Brian Morsberger while unemployed in 2001. It
consists of Brian Morsberger (circuit bent toys), Brandon Morsberger (guitar), and
Richie Morsberger (machines).
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Birds of Tin - Originally inspired by dark ambient ramblings and backward loops of the likes of :zoviet france: and the Hafler Trio, Birds of Tin recently has attained a more personal focus. The sounds have become more distinct and less dark, and the focus has shifted to a microview of texture and substance. These days the inspiration seems to come more from visual artists rather than contemporaries in the sound world. Wed if by Transitions' stated goal is to provide a physical demonstration of the flexibility of sound. It's statement is that it is not more choices that produce interesting work, but an open mind and a willing heart.
ENE - ENE has been making experimental electronic music for over a decade. The ENE discography features three full length CDs plus a mind boggling array of compilations and remixes. ENE's live history is even more varied than its recorded. ENE has shared the stage with such luminaries as La Bradford, DJ Spooky, Matmos, DJ Olive + WE, Lee Ranaldo, Windsor for the Derby, Lesser, Blonde Redhead, Sugar Plant, and Christian Marclay in NYC, Tokyo, Osaka, Washington DC, Baltimore, and many more space/time coordinates!
Gen Ken Montgomery - Gen Ken has been to Richmond before showcasing his interactive sound artform of sampling using contact microphones and various found objects which he runs through a laminator, recording the the process. He hasn't revealed exactly what he has in mind for this performance.
Khate - Khate makes electronic music which she has given up trying to name, genre-wise. Current major influences include: bells, Godzilla, vinyl static, the weather, ultradistorted kick drums, graphic files opened as raw PCM, loss, cicadas, dub, microsounds, thunderstorms, 50's monster movie scores, and mixed peppercorns. She uses: IDC Devastator PC, ~Korg Poly 800 Mk II keyboard ~Boss DR-550 drum machine ~Pearl SY-1 Syncussion ~IDC Oracle [circuit bent Speak & Spell] ~IDC ??? [un-named circuit bent Speak & Math] ~IDC Goethite [circuit bent keyboard] ~a variety of thrift store keyboards~IDC Dominatrix [circuit bent phase pedal] ~ART Mach rack effects and Boss pedals ~Sony Playstation ~no MIDI whatsoever and ~37 miles of cable..."
Birds in the Meadow - Birds in the Meadow is Marty McCavitt (improvised electronics) and Darius Jones (saxaphone). While Marty creates layers of tight and calculated bursts of frantic glitching squeals and squalls that move from one end of the tonal spectrum to the next in a heartbeat, Darius interacts, either matching the seeming chaos with harmonic tones and arpegiations or demonstrating a sense of calm with little miniature songs that can last only seconds.
FERALCATSCAN - FERALCATSCAN is a atmospheric sound collage artist. Mysterious noise scapes, drones and swells.
Projexorcism - Projexorcism is made up of a quad 16mm projector array that is suspended from a lighting pole - the projectors are synchronized with a 4-channel sound-actuated variable speed lighting controller. The projected images are split, inverted and bent using silver reflective CD-Rs and a plastic fresnel lens. The optical audio is fed through various effects and samplers before being replayed - the mechanical sounds of the relays and the bulbs brightening and dimming add further organic sounds to the collage of sound. Two additional keyboardists and a variety of guest musicians further complement the act. The theme this time will be on presidential politics and blind patriotism and since the general election is only a month after Oct 3rd they might have to tweak the film selection a bit & bust a voting film or two to make it more topical. It'll definately be a civic duty/political mix.
EXTRAS:
Voter Registration Booth - October 4th, 2004 is the absolute last day you will be able to register to vote Bush out of office, so 804noise will have a voter registration booth available through out the day to allow you to register if you haven't already done so.
804noise
PO Box 4296
Richmond, VA 23220
Archive:
804noise Fest 2003 [site] [photos]
804noise Fest 2004 [site] [photos] [press]
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