2016 SF Tape Music Festival

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.

2016 San Francisco Tape Music Festival
Friday-Sunday, January 8-10, 2015
Gray Area Grand Theater, 2665 Mission St
Tickets are $10 (if you’re “underemployed”) or $15 if you’re flush.

The 2016 festival begins by showcasing the entire range of the “fixed media” art form.

Both Friday and Saturday, 1/8-9, 8 pm concerts include a diverse range of music: from cinematic “radio plays” to abstract acousmatica – from sound-design works to full-spectrum drones. Iconic works by Javier Alvarez, Bebe + Louis Barron, John Chowning, Tod Dockstader, Paul Lansky + Brad Garton + Andrew Milburn, and Tetsu Inoue + Carl Stone will be presented.

Featured Bay Area composers include Leah Reid, Maggi Payne, Matt Ingalls, Adam Hirsch, Cliff Caruthers, Thom Blum, Tom Bickley, L.j. Altvater, and Joseph Anderson.

The Saturday, 1/9, 11 pm show is a special concert surveying a history of works originally intended to be performed over a multichannel surround sound system. Classic compositions by Iannis Xenakis and Morton Feldman will be performed alongside recent works by Elizabeth Anderson, Bjarni Gunnarsson, and the Bay Area duo, Voicehandler (Jacob Felix Heule and Danishta Rivero).

The Sunday, 1/10 concert features large scale works by François Bayle and Francis Dhomont. Both composers — now in their ’80s — are considered to be two of the most prominent and prolific stalwarts of acousmatic music, having been involved in the field from its beginnings.

In addition, a selection of cylinder recordings from the nascent days of recorded sound will be performed throughout the festival.