SUBSTRATA 1.3 MAXIMIZES THE MINIMAL, BEAUTIFULLY
You can think of Substrata 1.3—which happens at the acoustically awesome Chapel Performance Space—as splitting the difference between the Decibel and Debacle Festivals. There's overlap of both musical events in Substrata's remit, which focuses on adventurous, rigorous musicians working in experimental/electronic realms. Organizer Rafael Anton Irisarri has assembled another stellar lineup and expanded the fest to four days, including a workshop on "Subtle Listening" conducted by Kim Cascone on Sunday, July 21.
Thursday night revolves around the dispersed, blissful techno of the Sight Below (aka Irisarri), Portland's Ethernet (Tim Gray), and Iceland's Yagya (Aðalsteinn Guðmundsson). Ethernet's 144 Pulsations of Light (Kranky, 2009) is an overlooked gem of gnomic, soft-focused melodies and subliminal 4/4 beats. Yagya—who burst on the scene with 2002's arctic and majestic Rhythm of Snow—has gone on to cut three other full-lengths of chilled, sumptuous dub techno, including 2012's female-vocal-heavy The Inescapable Decay of My Heart. Recording for Ghostly International, the Sight Below is probably Seattle's most prominent and deft producer of minimal techno. Recent live sets have seen him moving toward the blackened, dubbed-out techno of Porter Ricks—a very good thing.
Friday night spotlights four artists doing unconventionally alluring things with guitars and effects. One of the Northwest's most interesting guitarists, Seattle's Sean Curley uses looping devices and his own phenomenal dexterity to create spiky, diamond-glint tapestries of strangely beautiful tones, evoking Robert Fripp, Snakefinger, and Vini Reilly at their spaciest and most restlessly inventive. Chicago's Ken Camden (another Kranky artist) is perhaps the most overtly psych-rock-leaning player in the fest. His albums—Lethargy & Repercussion and Space Mirror—abound with synapse-crackling ragas and mesmerizing, Spacemen 3–like drones. Grouper (Portland's Liz Harris) etherizes the heavens with gorgeous mists of treated guitar and vocals, creating astral-folk lullabies. Brooklyn-based Noveller (Sarah Lipstate) launches dense yet crystalline guitar clouds in the manner of Richard Pinhas in his more action-packed, meditative phase.
Saturday's lineup of Christina Vantzou (ex–the Dead Texan), Poland's Jacaszek, and San Francisco's Kim Cascone zeroes in on minimalist drone composed with utmost attention to fascinating detail. Vantzou applies severely peaceful orchestral flourishes in her stoically pulchritudinous works, offering a highbrow balm. On Jacaszek's 2011 album, Glimmer, he also toils with classical tools—harpsichord, strings, woodwinds—to forge microscopic ambience of tremulous beauty. Cascone, one of America's most venerable ambient-music producers under his own name and as Heavenly Music Corporation, has also worked as assistant music editor on David Lynch's Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart. Cascone's most recent productions involve his explorations of human-generated noise in oceans and audio hypnosis. It's apropos that Substrata will end with what will likely be the deepest performance. More info at irisarri.org/substrata-1.3, SOLD OUT, all ages.
