sfSound presents




The San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2015
JANUARY 9/10/11, 2015

16th Street Victoria Theater
2961 16th Street
San Francisco

$15 [$10 underemployed] each concert
$40 festival pass
purchase tickets in advance
or at the door (cash only) the day of show after 7pm

“Cinema for your ears.” -- SF Weekly     “…literally surrounded by sound.” -- San Francisco Chronicle
“Tape Capsule” -- The New York Times


America's only festival devoted to the performance of audio works projected in three-dimensional space, The San Francisco Tape Music Festival features four distinct concerts of classic audio art and new fixed media compositions by 32 local and international composers. Hear members of the SF Tape Music Collective, along with guest composers, shape the sound live over a pristine surround system (24 high-end loudspeakers) with the audience seated in complete darkness. It's a unique opportunity to experience music forming - literally - around you.

The 2015 Festival features two concerts showcasing the entire range of the “fixed media” artform; a Saturday late-night concert of longer, psychedelic, and ambient tape pieces (including the premiere of the 17-minute, 16-channel "full" version of BRIAN ENO'S Golden); and a concert featuring SFSOUNDGROUP performing works for instruments and electronics by some of the greatest French and American electroacoustic composers.


PROGRAM DETAILS

FRIDAY JANUARY 9 8pm
...a cinematic “radio play”, sine wave synthesis, a collage of recordings made on optical film in the 1920's, Brownian motion sonification, oscillating filter bank drones, and manipulated bandoneón music. We perform a rare work by CONLON NANCARROW and an optical film piece by WALTER RUTTMANN that predates "tape music" by decades. We also premiere a new work by Stanford professor FERNANDO LOPEZ-LEZCANO and perform numerous recent works by international composers including the San Francisco based THEO MATHIEN. We also feature a tribute performance of Antony by UC Berkeley professor DAVID WESSEL, who unexpectedly passed away in October.

Walter Ruttmann - Wochenende (1930)
Conlon Nancarrow - Piece for Tape (1955)
David Wessel - Antony (1977)
Theo Mathien - A Trace of Finches (2011)
Jason Bolte - Putt'n Around (2012)
Diana Salazar - La Voz Del Fuelle (2012)
Isobel Anderson - Going Under: Above and Below The River Ouse (2014)
Gordon Delap - “Perpetual Jiggling”: Noise portrait of Richard Feynman (2014)
Jane Rigler - Mukta (2014)
Fernando Lopez-Lezcano - The Hidden and Mysterious Machinery of Sound (2015 WORLD PREMIERE)


SATURDAY JANUARY 10 8pm
...field recordings, cinema for the ear, sound-design works, processed gamelan, samples of Tejano and synth-pop music, and a FRANK ZAPPA classic. We also present numerous recent works by international composers and locals BYRON EVORA, KENT JOLLY, and CHERYL LEONARD. In addition, Bay Area composer COLLIN MCKELVEY and San Francisco Tape Music Collective's own THOM BLUM premiere new works.

Frank Zappa - Nasal Retentive Calliope Music (1968)
Carla Scaletti - sunSurgeAutomata (1987)
Kent Jolly - Bellbox (2003)
Francisco Eme - Cuerno de Chivo (2012)
Byron Evora - FLUX - Sound Re-Design (2012)
Matthew Schoen - Track #1 (2013)
David Arango-Valencia - giraSol~giraNada (2014)
Cheryl Leonard - Ablation Zone (2014)
James O’Callaghan - Bodies-Soundings (2014)
Pierre-Luc Senécal - Schrei (2014)
Collin McKelvey - Sufficient for a Head: Radio Edit (2015, WORLD PREMIERE)
Thom Blum - Walkways of the Hopeful and the Hopeless (2015, WORLD PREMIERE)


SATURDAY JANUARY 10 11pm
This concert features a premiere by BRIAN ENO. In 2007, Eno composed Golden, a new 16-channel work specifically for our festival. He created multiple versions of various lengths, and the "full" 17-minute version will have its public debut on this program. In addition, we present a rare performance of PAULINE OLIVEROS'S The Day I Disconnected the Erase Head and Forgot to Reconnect It - one of her classic analog synth tape pieces from 1966 that predates the Bay Area Noise scene by decades. The program also includes a new work by Dutch composer AUGUSTO MEIJER and a sonic landscape composition by San Francisco Tape Music Collective's own CLIFF CARUTHERS.

Brian Eno - Golden (2007, WORLD PREMIERE)
Pauline Oliveros - The Day I Disconnected the Erase Head and Forgot to Reconnect It (1966)
Cliff Caruthers - Natoma (2003)
Augusto Meijer - Utopia (2014)


SUNDAY JANUARY 11 8pm (with sfSoundGroup)
Our final concert features the Festival's first collaboration with instrumentalists in a double-program exploring the various relationships between electronic and acoustic sounds. Performed by SFSOUNDGROUP, the first half features a program of music by French master composers PIERRE BOULEZ (violin and live electronics), LUC FERRARI (improvising ensemble and tape), and two tape-only works that are comprised of manipulated instrumental sounds by acousmatic icons BERNARD PARMEGIANI, and HORACIO VAGGIONE. The second half features a program by American composers MARIO DAVIDOVSKY (ensemble and tape), ROBERT ERICKSON (ensemble and tape), HANS TUTSCHKU (oboe, bass clarinet, and iPads), and MATT INGALLS (clarinet and tape).

“Does listening to this constant transition from one state to another tell us anything about the nature of sound?“ -- Bernard Parmegiani

FRENCH PROGRAM
Pierre Boulez - ANTHÈMES II (1997 :: violin + electronics) - Benjamin Kreith, violin + Sam Nichols, electronics
Luc Ferrari - ARCHIVES SAUVÉES DES EAUX (2000 :: improvisers + tape) - sfSoundGroup + SF Tape Music Collective
Bernard Parmegiani - ACCIDENTS / HARMONIQUES (from DE NATURA SONORUM) (1973 :: tape)
Horacio Vaggione - PRELUDES SUSPENDUS III (2009 :: tape)

AMERICAN PROGRAM
Mario Davidovsky - Synchronisms #2 (1964 :: flute, clarinet, violin, cello, tape) - sfSoundGroup
Robert Erickson - Pacific Sirens (1969 :: ensemble + tape) - sfSoundGroup
Hans Tutschku - Still Air 3 (2014 :: oboe, bass clarinet, iPads) - Kyle Bruckmann, oboe, Matt Ingalls, bass clarinet
Matt Ingalls - CrusT (1997 :: clarinet + tape) - Matt Ingalls, clarinet

SFSOUNDGROUP MUSICIANS
Monica Scott, cello
Sam Nichols, electronics
Brendan Lai-Tong, trombone
Benjamin Kreith, violin
John Ingle, saxophone/conductor
Matt Ingalls, clarinet
Diane Grubbe, flute
Joel Davel, percussion
Tom Dambly, trumpet
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe/english horn

funded in part by
The San Francisco Grants for the Arts, The French-American Fund for Contemporary Music,
The Zellerbach Family Foundation, and individual contributions
equipment kindly provided by The Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University