Chapel Performance Space, the long-time, acoustically rich home of Substrata Festival.
Chapel Performance Space, the longtime, acoustically rich home of Substrata Festival.

Substrata, one of the country’s most compelling experimental music festivals, will take place for the fifth year in a row at Chapel Performance Space, July 16 through 18. Organizer Rafael Anton Irisarri announced that 50 discounted pre-sale tickets are now available on the Substrata site. When those tickets are gone (he hopes by mid-April), Irisarri, who now lives in Westchester County, New York, will reveal the lineup and start selling regularly priced tickets and passes. He doesn’t have any confirmed artists yet, but promises another exceptional lineup full of “cutting-edge international talent.”

My focus, as usual, is on rarer artists,” Irisarri says, “ones who, while critically acclaimed, donโ€™t necessary visit our shores often. I donโ€™t want to repeat any previous artists, either; thatโ€™s been one of the parameters since I started the fest.”

Past Substrata events have hosted such important artists as Mika Vainio, Grouper, Koen Holtkamp, Noveller, Eluvium, Biosphere, Tim Hecker, and Mamiffer.

Dave Segal is a journalist and DJ living in Seattle. He has been writing about music since 1983. His stuff has appeared in Gale Research’s literary criticism series of reference books, Creem (when...