I entered Terminus, David Kwan's sound and video installation, at exactly the wrong time. The room was pitch dark, except for a giant gray tile on the wall that later brightened into a video screen. As an image slowly coalesced, I saw that the levitating tombstone at my feet was actually a squat bench.

I sat, and though my memory of college-era Latin has almost evaporated, I started to savor the twin irony of Kwan's title. Terminus presents a series of video segments shot from the vantage of various port terminals, docks, shorelines, and other views of the water's edge. In mainstream film and TV, such generic, static shots would appear fleetingly as B-roll, wallpapering off-camera narration and dialogue.

Instead, Terminus lingers. Container-loading cranes dissolve into vapor trails; fog-crested silhouettes of shorelines and distant landscapes slowly appear then fade, like a discreetly sponged-out watercolor sketch. Lapping waves and distant beeps of trucks backing up echo in tandem with gulls nearby. Listen closely and you can hear subtle artifacts of some murmuring time-stretched sound, quietly buzzing like breaking pine needles.

After an immeasurable length of time, the image fades to black with a cadential lap of water. The water's edge is windy, blowing hard enough to overload the microphone with bursts of a groaning, gritty rumble.

Like most of the installations at Jack Straw, Terminus creates a meditative space for one, or at most two viewers. A row of small screens outside the installation offers a postcard-sized preview. Inside, Terminus is a giant postcard, a slowly defrosting movie with no apparent beginning or ending. Those overlapping endpoints—shorelines, horizons, vistas—gently prod the memory, hinting something new about places that rarely get a second look.

THURSDAY APRIL 5

PARTINGTON & FERIANTE
Two fine (and by the way, foxy) guitarists team up for a lunchtime concert of classical and flamenco guitar music. Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave, 684-7171, noon—1 pm, free.

BEN RILEY'S MONK LEGACY BAND
Riley, a drummer who joined Thelonious Monk's quartet in 1964, brings his pianoless group to probe the music of the pianist, composer, and genius. It may seem strange, but it makes sense to play Monk's hits ("Blue Monk," "Epistrophy," and others) without a piano and fan out Monk's sweet 'n' sour harmonies to trumpet, guitar, bass, and saxophones. The Triple Door, 216 Union St, 838-4333, 7 (all ages) and 9:30 pm (21+), $18/$20.

FRIDAY APRIL 6

FALSTAFF
Singers from Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program sing in a fully staged production of the Verdi opera. Think of the Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program as minor league baseball for opera singers: younger, leaner, and sometimes much more fun than the majors. Also Sat April 7. The Theater at Meydenbauer Center, 11100 NE Sixth St, Bellevue, 389-7676, 7:30 pm, $15/$35.

EAST-WEST PIANO ARTS
Here's the rarest specimen of piano concert, one devoted to mostly new compositions for multiple pianos and pianists. I'm keen to hear Alfred Schnittke's "Hommage to Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich" for three pianists, Witold Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations for two pianos, and the premiere of Byron Au Yong's Island: Theme and Migrations. There are a couple of oldies too, morsels by Bizet, and Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka transcribed for two pianos. Brechemin Auditorium, UW campus, 685-8384, 7:30 pm, $10.

GAMELAN PACIFICA
If you've never heard the gently percolating metallic percussion of Javanese gamelan music, imagine a clangorous toy piano orchestra miniaturized by a Martian shrinking ray and you get the idea. Honcho Jarrad Powell, Javanese musician and composer Sutrisno Hartana, and other notable guests celebrate this ensemble's 25th anniversary. Also Sat April 7. Kerry Hall at Cornish College, 710 E Roy St, 325-6500, 8 pm, $7.50/$15.

SATURDAY APRIL 7

RENÉ ECKHART
My nominee for sleeper gig of the week. Eckhart, a Dutch virtuoso with a penchant for pieces scored for piano and live electronics, proffers an afternoon concert. On the program: Jeremy Jolley's EisBerg as well as works by Dutch composers Roderik de Man ("Auxochromes" with electronics), Peter Schat, Toek Numan, and Florian Maier (Luciferase: liquid music #1). Brechemin Auditorium, UW campus, 685-8384, 3 pm, $10.

DRONE
This one-off offshoot of the monthly HARSH series, described as a "night of anti-music/anti-noise/anti-beats," unleashes a continuous drone by the Noisettes, Loopool, Noise Poet Nobody with local first-call sound guru Vance Galloway, and Syphilis Sauna vs. Herpes Hideaway. Earplugs optional. Hanta House, 4750 Airport Way S (across from FedEx), 9 pm, $5.

TUESDAY APRIL 10

SCHENKMAN & JENNINGS
Flutist Christina Jennings and the masterly pianist Byron Schenkman perform Beethoven's Serenade in D, op. 25 along with works by C. P. E. Bach and Joseph Haydn. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255, 7:30 pm, $12—$15.