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New Media Art & Sound Summit
Austin's Church of the Friendly Ghost collective has been at it since 2003, presenting cutting-edge live performances and workshops featuring a broad spectrum of contemporary music, including free improvisation, avant-garde jazz, electronic music, deconstructed and reconstructed rock, sound art, new composition and multi-media performance. Their Sunday night sessions at the Salvage Vanguard Theater are now becoming the stuff of legend, much as their original church concerts in East Austin were several years ago. But so far, the Church of the Friendly Ghost (or CotFG, as it's affectionately abbreviated) hasn't quite seeped into the general consciousness of our fair city, though they're working on it. That's where the New Media Art and Sound Summit comes in.
NMASS spreads over three nights and two afternoons beginning Thursday, June 17 and features about forty different artists taking over both the Salvage Vanguard and the United States Art Authority. The festival is properly priced, too - 12 bucks will get you into everything (admittedly, some of it overlaps, but such is the nature of the beast - er, ghost). There is a little something here for everybody, and artists have come from far and wide to participate. Highlights include NYC-based drummer/composer Ravish Momin and his Afro-Asian jazz/electronic hybrid Trio Tarana (pictured), micro-percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (Easton, PA, via Osaka), Monterrey guitarist/improviser Omar Tamez, minimalist composer J.D. Emmanuel (Houston's answer to Terry Riley), Austin reedman/troubadour Alex Coke, and local noise rockers Red X Red M and the Plutonium Farmers. Tamez, Nakatani and Momin will each present a workshop on Saturday afternoon, and there will be film and video installations alongside much of the music. Certainly, however, NMASS weighs heavily on the sonic end of things, all of which will be invigorating enough to keep one's mind off the weekend temperatures.
