West Bank Arts Quarter



Photo (top) by Michael Berkowski

Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art 2006

February 22 - 26, 2006: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

Media Archive


Procedings for Spark 2006:
In Press:
Thursday, February 16, 2006 - St. Paul Pioneer Press
Spark fest sure to ignite passion for electronic wizardry

ROSS RAIHALA

Experimental electronic music can be thrilling, challenging and bizarre. And, sometimes, it can be a bookish guy simply standing behind a bank of synthesizers pushing buttons for an hour.

Expect to see all facets of the genre explored during the fourth annual Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art at the University of Minnesota. The event kicks off Tuesday with cover stars Electropolis providing the live score to "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and continues through Feb. 26 with a full schedule of performances, multimedia installations, lectures and master classes.

Nearly all of the events, which are detailed online at www.spark.cla.umn.edu, are free and open to the public.

Some of the names will be familiar to more mainstream music fans. Like Scanner (born Robin Rimbaud), the British DJ/composer who earned notoriety in the mid-'90s for creating songs that incorporated bits and pieces of mobile phone conversations plucked from the air using the equipment from which he took his name.

He'll present a keynote speech and participate in an onstage interview Wednesday. But the selling point is four artists performing live in New York and sending it over the Internet. Then, Scanner will mix the multiple feeds into a single stream in front of an audience (and back over the Internet).

Former and current ravers will want to check out the panel discussion on the history and future of rave culture Feb. 25, while musicmakers of many stripes will be interested in next Thursday's chat about the Internet's role in music distribution.

The most potentially fascinating material from the festival may well come from 74-year-old composer Alvin Lucier, a pioneer in examining the totality of a musical performance, from the physical movements of the artists to the acoustics of the room in which the music is produced. One of his most famous pieces, "Music for Solo Performer," amplified his brain waves and used the signal to trigger a series of percussion instruments. He'll speak Wednesday, and several of his works will be performed next weekend.


Just think of it as jazz with a clang, a bang and fritz lang
BY ROSS RAIHALA
Pop Music Critic

When Electropolis performs a live score for Fritz Lang's iconic silent film "Metropolis" on Sunday, the band will provide surround-sound the old-fashioned way.

The experimental jazz quartet plans to station musical friends Bill Mike, Desdamona, Diana Grasselli and Jelloslave around the audience of the Southern Theater.

"We love giving ourselves these kind of challenges," says saxophone player and "band ambassador" Michael Ferrier. "And I think it makes it more interesting, with (musicians) actually surrounding the audience.

"Rather than playing just another rock show, we wanted to really use the space. And everyone who is involved is a roll-with-the-punches type of person."

That's a key element to Electropolis, a foursome that has been kicking around town since 2000. Ferrier, drummer Steve Roehm, trumpeter Kelly Rossum and bass player Brian Roessler aren't afraid to use whatever it takes to add another dimension to their brand of improvisation. That includes taking full advantage of the unexpected squeals that emerge from electronic equipment, both musical and otherwise (they've coaxed notes out of electric typewriters, power drills and mobile phones).

The result is music that's ominous, sexy and surprisingly accessible — even if the band plays decidedly nontraditional gigs. Last year, they collaborated with music-video director Chris Cunningham for a Fringe Festival event. Tuesday, they'll open the University of Minnesota's Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art by providing the score for another silent film, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."

"We've always messed around with multimedia," says Ferrier. "We have so many talented friends in the video realm — it's way too tempting to collaborate with them."

Indeed, the band members thrive on the unpredictability of working with visuals that are just as flexible as the music they play. "We want to do things more in the moment, rather than reacting to someone else's timeline," says Ferrier.

Getting into film scoring was mostly an accident. Electropolis was booked to play the Cedar Cultural Center on Halloween 2004, but an incident with an automated spell-checker led to the band's name inadvertently being replaced with "Metropolis" midway through the description in a pre-show Cedar newsletter.

"It was like the movie found us through a typo," says Ferrier.

The band took the mistake as a sign and set out to create live accompaniment for the film. They pointedly did not listen to the original score from 1927, nor Giorgio Moroder's 1984 re-release, which incorporated pop songs from Queen's Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar and Bonnie Tyler.

"We did some book work and studied the theme of the film," Ferrier says. "Each of us watched it a number of times to familiarize ourselves with the pacing. The musicality of Lang's presentation is stunning, even with no sound whatsoever. We were all flabbergasted by the film — and we had agreed to do it before we really knew what we were getting into."

But it was a hit, and the Cedar asked Electropolis back for Halloween last year, when they debuted "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." This week marks the second Electropolis-enhanced performance of each film.

"After you've done a test run, the second time is kind of magical. You've worked out some of the bugs," Ferrier says.

The band released its self-titled debut album last year after several limited-run EPs.

"We tried to pace the CD and give it flow and a cohesive feel, kind of like a film," Ferrier says. "People have said it's got a kind of noir sound to it."

The disc also earned the attention of the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records. The band is in contact with the label's head of A&R, who has shared advice about potential career moves. They're also planning to hit the road in May for their first proper tour through the Midwest.

In the meantime, "Metropolis" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" offer the uninitiated a peek into the Electropolis world.

"It's a really good introduction for people who aren't used to listening to experimental rock music, because they have the film to use as a point of reference," Ferrier says. "It's kind of like an adventure we all take together."



From Minneapolis City Pages "A-List":
Spark Festival Opening Celebration Don't let the "Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art"'s academic underpinnings scare you. Trailblazing sound artist Alvin Lucier's concert and lecture appearances alone would merit multiple trips to the four-day, U of M-sponsored celebration even if they weren't free (as are most Spark events). After all, dude's Sferics, released in 1980, mined the ionosphere for revelations years before the likes of Jeff Tweedy and Jim O'Rourke knew shortwave from shortcake. Plus, Lucier and internationally lauded genre-hopper Scanner are mere bright spots in a constellation of speakers and performers stretching from the Nomad to Coffman Union and beyond. Given the price of admission, you can afford to take nearly as many chances as they will. (For complete listings--an absolute must--go to spark.cla.umn.edu.) Featuring a screening of 'Man With a Movie Camera'; music by Electropolis. Free. 8:00 p.m. --Rod SmithTUE FEB 21

Procedings from Spark 2005:
Posters
Press
See more information on the complete Spark 2005 Webpage.
© 2005 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.