For the fifth year in a row, Seattle plays host to this exceptional three day mini-festival (three nights of performances and a masterclass hosted by renowned Ukrainian pianist Lubomyr Melnyk) of precisely curated sounds by Rafael Anton Irisarri from the more substantive end of the ambient, neoclassical, chamber folk, electronic, immersive-avant spectrum. Held in an intimate setting, with a explicit audience in attendance (no loud rock bar and hangers-on here) and a dedicated sound engineer. Exactly as a festival of these sounds, with the corresponding audience and venue should be curated, hosted and assembled. For the festival's final Northwest installment, this year's programming features indie chamber ensemble Rachel's pianist, composer, and arranger, Rachel Grimes. Founder of the 12K label sound artist and minimalist composer Taylor Deupree. Abstract techno and post-dub composer Uwe Zahn, who's Arovane albums were a defining element in the evolution of early 2000's electronic music, Visual artist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Tara Jane O’Neil. One of the great unsung composers of the 20th Century and Continuous Music pioneer, Lubomyr Melnyk. Cutting edge underground rock harpist and composer Mary Lattimore, pianist, minimalist composer and multi-instrumentalist Rauelsson. Tarentel guitarist and fearless explorer of the fringes of experimental psychedelia, Jefre Cantu–Ledesma. Jesy Fortino's hushed folkic utterances as Tiny Vipers, Norm Chambers' early electronic, concrete and tape music inspired Panabrite. With video, projection and film-art accompaniment spanning the festival by Leo Mayberry and experimental Super 8 and 16mm filmmaker, Paul Clipson. Update: Due to health and family matters, both Arovane and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma will no longer be performing. In their stead the festival have picked up Brock Van Wey's bvdub project and 12k artist, Shuttle358 for the Thursday and Saturday night performances respectively.
From the Substrata site: "Substrata 1.5 is the 5th edition of Seattle’s intimate sound & visual art weekend happening July 16 – 18, 2015. At its nucleus: an all-ages live performance program, workshop, and field recording trip within the beautiful Cascade region of the Pacific Northwest. The idea behind Substrata is to explore varying perspectives of scale though the use of sound, composition and visuals. It features three live performance showcases featuring accomplished and internationally renowned artists working within the cutting edge where structural abstraction meets physical dynamics. The performance program focuses on live electronic music: applying technology to a concert setting while incorporating traditional and non-traditional instruments. The workshop explores dilemmas within the sound arts community; the field trip engages participants and performing artists in deep listening exercises and mobile recording on site. Our goal is to create an immersive weekend experience that engages the audience in a dialog with the artists that goes beyond the constrains of traditional performer/listener interactions. Each showcase is curated to distinctly portrait different takes of the potency of minimalism, varying between weighty combinations of tonalities used to sculpt out atmospheric ambiance, or powerful dynamic structures made up of the subtlest filigree of sonic building materials. By creating compositional spaces dealing with a sense of mass, along with openness of structure, the perspective of scale and the listener’s place in relation is shifted to allow for greater a sense of place beyond the environ of the performance in the interplay of the moment and physics of the larger world. In all, Substrata is an event that fosters appreciation for our natural surroundings and creates meaningful interaction between artists/participants while exploring a new locality."
