ATL City Skies 09 Electronic Music Festival, May 7-9, 2009
2009-01-05 by Jim Combs
City Skies 09 Electronic Music Festival, May 7-9, 2009 in Decatur, GA The 2nd Annual City Skies 09 Electronic Music Festival will be held in the Atlanta area on May 7-9, 2009. Kavarna in the Oakhurst section of Decatur, GA (minutes away from Atlanta) is once again the venue for the Festival Event. Kavarna gives us a perfect vibe for the performances, with great sound and a nice selection of food and beverage for festival attendees. Kavarna is a non-smoking and all-ages venue. The list of performers include some of the best electronic musicians from around the U.S. heard on radio stations like Music From the Hearts of Space, Echoes, Star's End, Soma FM, StillStream, Galactic Travels, and more, and are from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin. Musical styles ranged from ambient to downtempo chillout to Berlin school to IDM to space rock to experimental. This is not a DJ event. Real electronic music performed live by humans! Performers and tentative schedule for the three-day event are: Thursday, May 7, 2009 8pm- citizenGreen 9pm- Broken Symmetry 10pm- Masik 11pm- Different Skies All-stars (John Rossi III, Jonathan Mills, Kevin Haller, Jim Combs plus guests) Friday, May 8, 2009 7pm- aTHeNa Blue 8pm- Earthgirl 9pm- Duet for Theremin & Lap Steel 10pm- Xeriod Entity (Howard Moscovitz, Greg Waltzer, Bill Fox) 11pm- Paul Vnuk & Klimchak Saturday, May 9, 2009 Afternoon session 1pm- Ivan Schwartz 2pm- Don Hassler 3-5pm- Richard Lainhart workshop- Multi-Dimensional Control for Realtime Analog Synthesis Performance* Evening session 7pm- Kathy Raimey 8pm- Mark Mahoney 9pm- Richard Lainhart 10pm- Kevin Spears & Shane Morris 11pm- Richard Devine & Joshua Kay For more information, ticketing, and performer bios and event schedule: http://www.cityskies.com All proceeds from ticket sales will go to performers for this event. Tickets are available online at Brown Paper Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producerevent/52609?prod_id=10495 Discount tickets are available for buyers of multiple days or sessions. Purchasers of the 3 day - 4 session ticket save $18 over buying at the door. Purchasers of the 2 day - 3 session ticket save $11 over buying at the door. And purchasers of the All day Saturday ticket save $6 over buying at the door. Single session tickets saves $2 over buying at the door. Venue location - Kavarna, 707 East Lake Drive, Decatur, GA 30030 Please add us as friends on MySpace and Facebook: http://www.myspace.com/cityskiesfestival http://www.facebook.com/pages/City-Skies-08-Electronic-Music-Festival/1083883087\8?ref=ts *Details for Richard Lainhart workshop on Saturday afternoon May 9, 2009 Multi-Dimensional Control for Realtime Analog Synthesis Performance The promise of electronic music has been, from the beginning, to provide the composer with the means to create his or her own unique sounds and musics without the need for intermediaries like performers and technicians. And the problem with electronic music has been, from the beginning, to endow synthesized sound with the same organic expressivity found in acoustic instruments and natural sound while making synthesizers viable performance instruments in their own right. The first electronic instruments intended for performance, such as the Theremin and the Ondes Martenot, while providing the performer with highly nuanced pitch control, had limited sound-shaping control and could only play one note at a time. The first modular analog synthesizers, while offering polyphony - the ability to play multiple notes simultaneously - and unlimited sonic control, had limited expressive performance control and were completely impractical for live use. There have been many attempts since then to integrate the unlimited potential of modular analog synthesis with practical performance capabilities, and to provide the electronic music composer/performer with the kind of expressive musical control available in advanced acoustic instruments. Among of the most successful and creative of these efforts are the Buchla 200e analog modular synthesizer and the Haken Continuum Fingerboard. Buchla's 200e is the first modular analog synth with patch memory and the ability to re-route patchcords on the fly, making it an ideal instrument for performance, capable of both the highest and lowest levels of control. The Continuum is a unique multidimensional controller keyboard that senses direct finger movement in three dimensions (X, Y, and pressure) for each of up to 16 fingers, making it one of the most advanced performance controllers available today. Together, the 200e and the Continuum make for an electronic music performance system of unparalleled expressivity and sensitivity. In his workshop, Richard will demonstrate the synthesis and control functions of the Buchla 200e with an emphasis on patch programming for maximum expressivity under Continuum control. The workshop will include a live performance focusing on the Continuum/Buchla 200e system's expressive control capabilities. Time permitting, workshop attendees will also have the opportunity to play the system themselves.