Electronic music festival brings big names and enthusiasm for a new art form to campus

Nick Siegel

Lawrence University’s Electronic Music Club is hosting its third annual Electronic Music Festival. The festivities began on Tuesday, April 22, and are set to run until Wednesday, April 30. This year’s festival will feature a wide variety of styles, including jazz-oriented works from saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra and a “music with art” film from Sonic Circuits Videos. The music features the forever intriguing sound sculptures of Mark Applebaum and guitar and programming by Ryan Francesconi.

The Sonic Circuits Videos are a collection of works submitted to an annual festival that has been going on for about a decade. These works range from the more traditional electronic music and film setting to the highly complex. Each year the festival picks a handful of these works as winners for the compilation video.

A screening of these works will take place at Wriston Auditorium on Sunday, April 27 at 6:00 p.m.

The Student Electronic Music Recital will be held later on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. at the Music-Drama Center, room 259. This recital will feature works from two EMC members, David Cutright and Eric Schoster.

The next night will feature a presentation of Akira Rabelais’ electronic reconstructions of 20th century piano music, entitled “Eisoptrophobia,” at Wriston Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. More specifically, the film shows Rabelais’ manipulation of works by Bartok, SETI, and Carte with his own personally developed software.

The festival continues on Monday at the Underground Coffeehouse at 9:30 p.m. with a performance of improvised electro-acoustic music from Lawrence University’s Matt Turner and San Francisco’s Ryan Francesconi and Mark Applebaum.

Mark Applebaum is a pianist and live sound sculptor and will be hosting a workshop on Tuesday, April 29 at 9:30 a.m. in Harper Hall. He will perform a concert on the same day and in the same hall at 9:30 p.m.

Applebaum’s sound sculptures are made from household materials such as combs, brushes, or dining utensils. The performer creates and samples sounds from these inventions for live performance. In addition to being an amazing performer, Applebaum teaches composition and theory at Stanford University.

Francessconi will present a workshop on Tuesday, April 29 at 1:30 p.m. at Shattuck Hall 156. On Wednesday, April 30 at 9:30 p.m. in the Underground Coffee House the guitarist, programmer, media artist, and composer will perform selections from his recent album, Interno. The music from Interno is for two computers, guitar, and string quartet.

According to Eric Schoster, “The festival’s intent is to help students to become more aware of what’s going on with electronic music. The club’s intent is to help students gain access to this art form.”

David Cutright followed up by concluding, “We’ve been working hard for four years to promote electronic music and to take this new art form seriously.”

The Electronic Music Club meets at 9:30 p.m. every Monday night in the Ormsby Hall lounge.