Rahikka (Seattle)
Sound and video artist Rahikka will be exhibiting new works in an expansive performance. Rahikka explores atmospheric ambiance through droning tones, noise, and repetition.
Adopting Brian Eno's methodology of "theory over practice", Rahikka has explored various themes including isolation, reflection, patience, and transcendence.
Rahikka's first album, Hele, was released in September 2017.
Lavender (Portland)
Transforming field recordings into new sound objects and re-purposing them in the context of depth of field and spatial placement. A meditative performance using a minimal modular synthesizer setup and video projections.
Certain musical pieces are meant to be absorbed as sensorial experiences - reminders that music is n't only about hooks and melodies, but is also deeply grounded in texture, ambience and raw emotion. This is the vision that drives the work of Portland-based sound artist Lavender. His forward-thinking and ethereal songs echo the work of artists like Four Tet, Tim Heckerand Alessandro Cortini.
Lavender’s first album Mystique Youth came out August 2015 on Jacktone Records and made it into SF Weekly’s top 15 Bay Area albums of the year. Lavender's follow up album Horizons Beneath the Surface, abbreviated HBTS, came out May 9th 2016 on Jacktone Records. HBTS was supported by multiple tours along the US west Coast and Europe throughout 2016/17. The album received stellar reviews from XLR8R, That’s Deck, aQuarius recOrds and SF Weekly. HBTS made it into KALX Radio’s Best Albums of 2016 list.
Lavender’s deep understanding of synthesis and sound design also led him into film music. His latest work can be heard on full-length movie The Modern Jungle (La Selva Negra), which received multiple nominations including the honorable mention from Slamdance Film Festival.
Marc Kate (San Fransisco)
Originally trained as a filmmaker and visual artist, San Francisco-based producer and composer Marc Kate applies cinematic and conceptual approaches to music and audio production. As a response to the tech culture assault on San Francisco (and the world), Kate takes up the tools of the trade — computers and synthesis — and slyly counter-attacks, imbuing humanity precisely where humanity is being evacuated. He creates a counterpoint to tech’s speed and greed — slow, immersive, materialist, drifting. Kate also draws from his history in San Francisco’s synth-punk and techno scenes, emerging to create stripped-down, static experiments in synthesis. He has released solo material on the labels Computer Tapes, Jacktone, Loöq, HNYTRX, Trip Show and Treehouse Muzique, and his own imprints Untitled & After and Failing Forms.
