Electronic Sound + Art Chicago launches with a 2 room multimedia event at the Viaduct Theater in Chicago, featuring CHICAGO/MIDWEST DEBUT performances from two legendary electronic music composers, as well performances curated from a selection of established local artists.
Atom™ and Tobias Freund are veritable living legends of electronic music. Tobias began his career in the early ’80s, mainly using the pseudonym “Pink Elln”. He looks back on a long sequence of music making that has led him from mainstream pop to club music, and then onto the experimental and undefinable. Uwe Schmidt, better known as Atom™, has a similar musical background. He is most well known for his work under the Senor Coconut moniker, but has worked under dozens of other aliases, all with their own sound.
Jon Monteverde aka XYZYR_KX on the free, Chicago-based Frequencity compilation nabbed the “Angriest Reader of the Week” on Angry Asian blog. Hooray! While its nice to get nominated for anything special, we here personally don’t find Jon angry *at all*. In fact, he’s pretty cool and committed to his work. Check out one of his live performances at Darkroom:
Though Frequencity doesn’t rely on any one particular audible path, it pushes through new branches of thought — as the cover-art depicts — to unveil an assemblage of electronic music disorder, all hailing from Chicago. Techno, experimental, IDM, post-rock, downtempo, classical, chiptune, electro and acid are all smashed together in a sprite compilation that lightly brushes upon each of these styles.
UPDATE: Due to initial technical difficulties and summer electronic music festivals (and a lot of begging for more time :-p), the deadline is extended to Monday, June 13, 2011 at 9am. The entries will be listened to through the following week and we’ll let you know if your stuff has been chosen.
Hey, Chicagoland-based electronic musicians! Want to be part of a Chicago electronic music compilation? subVariant is planning to release a free-to-download collection called Frequencity featuring quality songs from regional musicians.
All electronic music genres are welcome, but the final compilation will be a limited selection of tracks chosen by the subVariant A&R team.
subVariant will also release an original t-shirt design in the theme of “Chicago Electronic Music” when the compilation is officially released.
Going with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce’s definition, participation is only open to musicians in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties. Even though Chicago-based Chicagoans tend to scoff at suburbanites who adopt the label, we’ll let this one be open to a larger pool of applicants.
The deadline for submissions is Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 8pmMonday, June 13 at 9am.
So, got a track or three you think we’ll like? Let us listen!
What really makes a music scene? You know–those certain reasons that make you put on a jacket and promptly head for the El or call a cab just to get there in time. That’s what Chicago Innovative Electronic Music (CIEM) and subVariant are asking via their Crowdsourced 1.0 event: What is it about electronic music that people want to see live?
It really is a heady question. But, CIEM & subVariant’s preliminary answer seems to be: “That which is “crowdsourced.”
To the unfamiliar, “crowdsourced” means that the content that is the most popular “rises to the top” via votes–as in, the crowd chooses what’s the most relevant. On Digg.com (a popular news and entertainment aggregator) the front page is filled with only the content that has been voted up through “diggs.” Threadless is also a good example: only the designs that are voted hottest actually make it to production.
On April 10, CIEM will test their theory in the electronic music world. Vote on mixes from local electronic music artisians to fill the four slots in the show that runs from 7pm to 10pm. And when you show up…it will be “crowdsourced.” Meaning, everyone there was voted into their slot.
It’s democracy in electronic music. Like, seriously, democracy. Not that "republic" stuff that’s been thrown around. Your vote actually has a say on whether this artist’s sounds assault your ears for 30 minutes or not. Think carefully and vote.
Go to subvariant.com to vote for your favorite artist. The contenders are Kawa, Protman, [esc]ape, Justin McGrath, dreamlogicc, Roth Mobot, and Liz Revision.
Vote early and encourage your friends to vote as well.
Crowdsourced 1.0
The Empty Bottle
7pm – 10pm
$3
1035 North Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622