Jan Jelinek - Seattle Performace : Sept 21 / Decibel Fest Photos

As if the Decibel Fest this past week wasnt enough (and it certainly was profound in an abundance of ways) Jan Jelinek is performing a Seattle show as a post-Decibel appreciation party in advance of his appearance at New Forms the following weekend. Atmospheric, kosmik-jazz-infused electronic sounds of the highest order. This'll be a thing of beauty not to miss - excellent timing to ward off the post-DB blues.


Jan Jelinek site at Scape Records


And the two most prominent photo-documentations of this years Decibel Fest. Just look for the two real-tall hairless dudes, the little white haired bespectacled fellow and the short black haired dancin-femme and you can spot my posse pretty easy in the crowd... not to mention all those artist types doing their thing:

Decibel Photo Group on Flickr

and

Decibel Official Photographer site

Pedro Almodovar "Viva Pedro" Retrospective at Landmark Theatres - September

Viva Pedro - 8 Classic Films from Pedro Almodovar - All New 35mm Prints!
Beginning September 1 at Seattle's Harvard Exit Theatre.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/vivapedro/



Seattle Times article with schedule/times:


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/283368_pedro01.html


"To celebrate the impending release of Pedro Almodóvar's latest film
Volver, Landmark Theatres and Sony Pictures Classics are proud to
present eight acclaimed films from the Spanish writer and director.
Program includes brand new 35mm prints of Bad Education, Talk to Her
(Academy Award Winner for Best Original Screenplay), All About My
Mother (Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film), Live
Flesh, The Flower of My Secret and his rarely-screened earlier works
Matador, Law of Desire and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown."

Check other Landmark Theatres listings for forthcoming dates in your town:

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/FilmIndex_frameset.htm

New Forms Media Art and Electronic Music Fest : Sept 19-24 : Vancouver

Man, the westside is crazy with the festivals this late summer/early fall. Between San Francisco, Seattle and
Vancouver its proving to be an amazingly active month(s) for the electronic arts.
Check what BC has going on:

New Forms Festival site

Previous years have featured exceptional meetings of contemporary audio/visual works and performances
by the likes of Tujiko Noriko, Fennesz, Philip Jeck, Francisco Lopez, Tim Hecker and Skoltz_Kolgen.
Highlights of this years sonic element include: Deadbeat, Tomas Jirku, Jan Jelinek, Mitchell Akiyama and Keith Fullerton Whitman

Decibel Electronic Music Festival : Sept 14-17

Decibel Electronic Music Festival site


Ok, so after wowing the sonic-socks off of audiences with acts like Apparat, Thomas Fehlmann,
Tim Hecker, Deadbeat and Fennesz last year Decibel is back with an equally (?) stunning lineup
again this year. Inspired anticiaption for these artists this time around:

Murcof
Ryoichi Kurokawa
Apparat
Mokira
Richard Chartier
Taylor Deupree

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2006 DECIBEL FESTIVAL SHOWCASE INFO AND TIMESLOTS


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[THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 14TH]
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NORTEC COLLECTIVE / STATIC DISCOS SHOWCASE
presented by KEXP
@ Neumos: 9pm to 2am
$10 presale / $12 at the door or free with DB PASS (CLUB, PRO or ALL ACCESS)
Latinsizer > 9pm 9:45pm
Panoptica > 9:45pm 10:30pm
Plankton Man > 10:30pm 11:30pm
Fax > 11:30pm 12:30am
Nortec Collective > 12:30am 1:30am

EPHRAIM ALEXANDER MEMORIAL
@ The Bad Juju Lounge: 10pm to 2am
FREE


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[FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 15TH]
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2006 DB OPENING GALA EVENT
@ The Broadway Performance Hall: 6pm to 10:00pm
$17 at the door or free with DB ALL ACCESS PASS
[NOTE] ALL ACCESS PASS NEEDED FOR GUARANTEED ADMISSION (limited capacity).
Pass holders, please arrive at 5:30pm to begin seating.
Guest speakers > 6pm 6:30pm
Mr. Projectile (Downtempo Set) > 6:30pm-7:30pm
Deru (Ambient Set) > 6:30pm-7:30pm

HEADFUK SHOWCASE V3
@ Neumos: 9pm to 3am
$12 presale / $15 at the door or free with DB PASS (CLUB, PRO or ALL ACCESS)
Logic Probe > 9pm 10pm
Lusine > 10pm 11pm
Telefon Tel Aviv > 11pm 12pm
Apparat > 12pm 1:15pm
Alex Smoke > 1:15pm 2:45pm

PORTLAND SHOWCASE
@ The Bad Juju Lounge: 9pm to 2am
FREE
SciFiSol > 9pm 10pm
Senor Frio > 10pm 11pm
Lets Go Outside > 11pm 12am
Ben Milstein > 12am 1am
GreenStar > 1am 1:45 am

FUTURE FUNK SHOWCASE
presented by Uniting Souls
@ Chop Suey: 9pm to 3am
$10 presale / $12 at the door or free with DB PASS (CLUB, PRO or ALL ACCESS)
Jeromy Nail > 9pm 9:30pm
Mister Leisure > 9:30pm 10:30pm
Brett Johnson > 10:30pm 12:00am
Jacob London (Debut Live Set) > 12:00am 1:00am
Claude VonStroke > 1:00am 2:45am

SHAMELESS AFTERHOURS
Venue, Price ?????
DJ Recess
Justin Byrnes
Tekgnosis
Kris Moon and Jerry Abstract 2x4 Set!
MC Anton Bomb
Foc:Eye (visuals)


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[SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH]
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DB-CONFERENCE
@ The Broadway Performance Hall (Theater and Demonstration Room): 12:00pm to 7pm
$10 or $5 for students (Limited seating in the Demo Room for the clinics)
Clinics (12pm 7pm: Demo Room)
Ableton Live : Live 6
Livid : Union VJ
M-Audio : Pro-Tools
Mackie
Native Instruments : Kore
Rane : TTM 57SL
Propellerhead : Reason
Panel Discussion (1:30pm- 3pm: Theater)
Music Discovery and Distribution in the Digital Age
Robotspeak Sessions (3:30pm 5pm: Theater)
featuring performance by Lusine

EXPERIMENTAL SHOWCASE
presented by Nonsequitor
@ The Broadway Performance Hall: 6:30pm to 10:00pm
$15 at the door or free with DB ALL ACCESS PASS
[NOTE] ALL ACCESS PASS OR PRO PASS NEEDED FOR GUARANTEED ADMISSION (limited capacity).
Pass holders, please arrive at 6pm to begin seating.
Yann Novak > 6:30pm 7:15pm
Son Of Rose > 7:15pm 8pm
Richard Chartier > 8:15pm 9pm
Taylor Deupree > 9pm 10pm

FUTURE JAZZ SHOWCASE
presented by SunTzu Sound
@ The Baltic Room: 9pm to 2am
$10 presale / $12 at the door or free with DB PASS (CLUB, PRO or ALL ACCESS)
Jeremy Ellis
1Luv
SunTzu Sound

ELECTRO POP SHOWCASE
presented by KBCS 91.3 FM
@ Chop Suey: 9pm to 2am
$10 presale / $12 at the door or free with DB PASS (CLUB, PRO or ALL ACCESS)
Introcut > 9pm 10pm
Foscil > 10pm 10:45pm
Plan B > 11pm 11:45pm
Static > 11:45am 12:30am
Subtle > 12:30am 1:45pm

DIRTY DANCING SHOWCASE
@ Neumos: 9pm to 2am
$17 presale / $20 at the door or free with DB PASS (CLUB, PRO or ALL ACCESS)
Camea and Insideout > 9pm 9:45pm
Tim Xavier > 9:45pm 10:30pm
Jerry Abstract > 10:30pm 11:15pm
[a]pendics.shuffle > 11:15pm 12:15pm
Green Velvet > 12:15pm 1:45am

MINIMAL / DUB SHOWCASE
@ The Bad Juju Lounge: 10pm to 2am
$5 presale / $7 or free with CLUB PASS
Robin Judge > 10pm 11pm
Soultek > 11pm 12am
Kate Simko > 12am 1am
Ruoho Ruotsi > 1am 1:45am

Db AFTERHOURS
@ Neumos: 2am to 6am
$10 presale / $12 at the door or free with an ALL ACCESS PASS
Kristina Childs > 2am 3am
Davide Squillace > 3am 4am
Jon McMillion > 4am 5am
Andreas Tilliander > 5am 6am


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[SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 17TH]
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OPTICAL MULTIMEDIA SHOWCASE
$15 at the door or free with DB ALL ACCESS PASS
@ The Broadway Performance Hall: 12:00pm to 5pm
[NOTE] ALL ACCESS PASS NEEDED FOR GUARANTEED ADMISSION (limited capacity)
Randy Jones (audio / video performance) > 1pm 1:45pm
Speedy J and Scott Pagano (5.1 audio / video screening) > 2:15pm 3:15pm
Ryoichi Kurokawa (audio / video performance) > 4pm 5pm

AMBIENT SHOWCASE
@ The Broadway Performance Hall: 6:30pm to 10:00pm
$15 at the door or free with DB ALL ACCESS PASS
[NOTE] ALL ACCESS PASS OR PRO PASS NEEDED FOR GUARANTEED ADMISSION (limited capacity).
Pass holders, please arrive at 6pm to begin seating.
Anton Zalaparta > 6:30pm 7:00pm
Mokira > 7:00pm 7:45pm
The Dead Texan > 8:00pm 9:00pm
Murcof > 9:00pm 10pm

OSCILLATE SHOWCASE
@ The Bad Juju Lounge: 9pm to 2am
FREE: 9pm to 2am
NdCv
KFO
Electrosect
Justin Byrnes
Kinoko
Paul Edwards
Tekgnosis

2006 DECIBEL FINALE
@ Neumos: 9pm to 2am
$17 presale / $20 at the door or free with DB PASS (CLUB, PRO or ALL ACCESS)
Greg Skidmore > 9pm 11pm
Bola > 11pm 12am
Speedy J > 12am 1:45am

The Wire : Adventures in Modern Music - Chicago : Sept 20 - 24

Once again the UK's premier magazine of all things 'Adventures in Modern Music' -
The Wire hosts their annual shindig in Chicago this September. "Exclusive 128kbs
downloads of artists performing in 2006's Adventures In Modern Music festival at
Chicago's Empty Bottle":

Link to The Wire Magazine Site



This years fest features such notables as:

Tim Hecker, Jandek, Colleen, OM, Subtle, Paul Flaherty, Hamid Drake & William Parker Duo

...Just to name a few personal faves.

Wooden Octopus Skull Experimental Music Festival - Sept 7-11

Yeah, wack name, I know - but a noteworthy fest of experimental and noise sounds that has come back around this year.
Check the all-Kawabata fest on the first night! And the surrealist folk night featuring Irr.App.[Ext.]

WoodenOctopus Skull Experimental Musick pFestival site


The WoodenOctopus Skull Experimental Musick pFestival
Sept. 7th - 10th 2006, Seattle Washington
The Conjuring Room

Conjuring Room Myspace page


Thursday Sept. 7th - Japanese New Music Festival featuring:

Acid Mothers Temple SWR
Ruins Alone
Zubi Zuva
Akaten
Seikazoku
Zoffy
Shrinp Wark

Friday Sept. 8th - Ladies Night featuring:

Replicock (Jakie of Smegma & Angie Sharkieface)
Midmight (from Hans Grusel)
Tolva Olsen (Dead Machines, Wooden Wand)
16 Bitch Pile Up
M.V. Carbon (of Metalux)
Leticia Castanede
Dialing In
Friends Forever

Saturday Sept. 9th - Surrealist Folk Night featuring:

Chrystal Belle Scrodd (first ever live performance!)
Irr. App. (Ext.)
Waldteufal
Amber Asylum
Soriah
Ear Venom

Sunday Sept 10th - Overwhelming Noise Night! featuring:

Wolf Eyes
Dead Machines
Double Leopards
Cherry Point
Hive Mind
Yellow Swans

Ryoji Ikeda / Skoltz_Kolgen / Alog / Richard Chartier / William Basinski - all Performing in SF

Official Ryoji Ikeda site


Those of you who know the work of digital minimalist composer Ryoji Ikeda also no doubt know of the rarity of his US performances and recognize this as the opportunity it is to be aurally & visually stunned. Especially in the case of the surround performances. Sadly, not happening in my town and I was just in SF a month ago and won't be able to attend these shows. Breaks my heart. If you live in the Bay Area the word I would use is Unmissable!

Recombinant Media Labs Ryoji Ikeda site


Montreal multimedia maestros Skoltz_Kolgen will be perfoming a new audio/video piece in SF a week later as well as an exhibit of their installation piece "Aaska" which was premiered at Mutek last year in the Museum of Contemporary Art and was a thing of beauty. Making for another couple nights of unmissable sound/video arts.


Recombinant Media Labs Skoltz_Kolgen site


If that aint enough Rune Grammofon artists Alog from Norway are perfoming in the SF Electronic Music Fest that same week along with James Tenney among others:

SF Electronic Music Fest site


...And Richard Chartier, William Basinski, Tim Hecker and Frank Bretschneider are performing as part of the 'Bleeding Edge Fest' along with a number of other quality names in a diverse bill of good avant-rock and exceptional electronic sounds:

Bleeding Edge Fest site


I shoulda invested in that time machine and moved to San Francisco six months ago.
Fark.

Lead Pencil / Lawrimore Project : 'Maryhill Double' Installation / 'If These Walls' Opening

Once again Lead Pencil go about their ingenius work of blurring the definitions of architecture and installation - best read the details at the site rather than me getting all wordy on it - this one being out in the middle of nowhere aka the Columbia Gorge. Future roadtrip in order!

Lead Pencil 'Maryhill Double' Installation site


SuttonBeresCuller - If These Walls 'Revelation Ceremony' - Opening July 15. Yep, a bit post-event on this one, but if you've ever had the joy of seeing the mobile installations by SuttonBeresCuller such as 'There Goes the Neighborhood' or their 'Trailer Park' out and about town, this is an opportunity to witness more of their work - albeit in a 'bug caught under glass' ( ie: presented in a gallery) sort of way that takes away the situationalist-public-interraction aspect that I find to be my fave thing about their various works. The Lawrimore is an attractive gallery and certainly shows much promise for future shows, no surprise in the fact that the space was designed by Lead Pencil.

Lawrimore Project - SuttonBeresCuller site

New Films by : Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Yoji Yamada, Cristi Puiu - at NWFF & Landmark

Seems like cinema is the only thing I've been writing on as of recent - probably due to there being an abundance of films like these going on - all return engagements of some of my SIFF faves from this year:

The new Hou Hsiao-Hsien is at the NWFF - just saw it last night - man is it ever slooooow, but good. More methodical than his last two "Millenium Mambo" and "Cafe Lumier" and more varied in style - reflecting each of the three 'times' depicted - 1966 - 1911 - 2005. Prepare for the clock to stop. Serious.


"Three Times" site w/ Trailer


Yoji Yamada's second film in the trilogy after "Twilight Samurai" another beautifully shot quiet examination of the struggle of the individual vs. the feudal institution - at the Landmark - Varsity 7/13 - 20:


"Hidden Blade" site w/ Trailer


Cristi Puiu's Cannes award winning film "Death of Mr. Lazarescu" brutal examination of a man's slow corporeal decline - sounds painful to watch and it is, but pretty incomparable cinema experience too. Landmark - Varsity 7/28 - 8/3


"Death of Mr. Lazarescu" site

Cannes Films Festival + Cinema Miscellanea

Yeps, so ok lotsa cool stuff was at Cannes this year. These being the prize winners this time around. Bummer that like none of them made it into the West Coast SIFF/SFIFF Fests. Was hoping we'd at least get the Almodovar:


Palme d' Or - Ken Loach "The Wind That Shakes The Barley"
Best Actress and Best Screenplay - Pedro Almodovar "Volver"
Best Director - Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Babel"
Jury Prize - Andrea Arnold "Red Road"
Camera d'Or - Corneliu Porumboiu "A Fost Sau n-a Fost?"
Un Certain Regard - Chao Wang "Luxury Car"

Looking forward to many of these appearing over the coming year stateside! And here's more Infos on some personal faves/oddities/curiosities that I'm anticipating from the fest :


Article in Sight & Sound on the new Almodovar:


http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49286


Pen-Ek Ratanaruang the Director of "Last Life in the Universe" (which was quite good) also has a new film titled "Invisible Waves":

http://www.invisiblewaves.com/


Turkish Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan who's last film "Uzak" (which I liked) has a new one:

http://www.nbcfilm.com/iklimler/iklimler.php?mid=1


And the Pang Bros "The Eye!" new film which at least styistically/technically looks way cool - sci-fi/horror alternate reality thingy - featuring Tsai Ming-Liang's fave actress:

http://www.re-cyclethemovie.com/


And this one from Korea by Joon-ho Bong the director of "Memories of Murder" just looks totally ridiculous! - in a Ultramonster kind of way:

http://www.thehost.co.kr/