Another imaginative line up, matching five veterans of the Outlands. The performance marked festival debuts for pugilistic percussionist Stephen Finn, and reed deconstructionist Scott Rosenberg, the wise fool in whatever deck he plays. He began this set playing the mouthpiece of his flute, Bruckman brought the dry shenai, and Hammer’s tape loops kept dealing wild cards. Finn blew lusty drums and Hammer introduced rubbery sounds. Hoyt gave an emotional interlude, using his leg to mute his horn. Running loops of cut up tape, Hammer kept changing channels around his bandmates. Long eloquent lines from Hoyt combined with Rosenberg yelling into the bell of his baritone sax.

Having tested eachother out, the quintet pushed harder the second go. Hoyt blasted his trumpet and Rosenberg worked out on baritone sax. Bruckmann dusted the piece with brisk oboe, and colliding sounds burst from Hammer’s loops. Finn attacked his altered drums under the fierce wail produced by Hoyt, Rosenberg, and Bruckman. After spraying fire, Hoyt and Bruckmann locked into held notes while Hammer created murky slurs on tape and Rosenberg rolled flute parts on the concrete floor.

Jessica Catron, cello; Jeremy Drake, amplified acoustic guitar; Brian Eubanks, reeds; Chris Forsyth, electric guitar; David Kendall, electronics; Karen Stackpole, percussion; Rachel Thompson, violin.

Minneapolis artist Rachel Thompson christened the first of two festival septets scraping her violin. Stackpole lit an incense of sound with tuned gongs. Catron matched Thompson and Jeremy joined bowing. Eubanks tested the water on soprano. Forsyth began muting with sticks, but moved on to crunch notes that jolted the ensemble into action. Stackpole wound up and released a spindly mechanical spider on cymbals. Twirling a phillips screwdriver handle on his strings, while Drake aggressively bowed his prepared guitar. Stackpole plied her uncanny evocation of tones from bowed cymbals. Forsyth answered Drake’s bowing with pointy little dart notes. Stackpole raised songs from bowls, as Eubanks blew and sucked his soprano, played long tones. Catron played her own long tones. Singing gong, the electric throb grows. A beautiful set.

Day 3

Kyle Bruckmann, oboe, english horn; Jeremy Drake, amplified acoustic guitar; DJ Ultraviolet, turntables; Jonathan Zorn, analog synthesizer.

DJ Ultraviolet (Shawn O’Neal) represented one of the Festival’s best ideas. This quartet he shared with fellow electricians Jeremy Drake and Jonathan Zorn, and acoustic sound sculptor Kyle Bruckmann, rode in on a DJ UV sound wave. Bruckmann’s oboe slowly rose to interact with the wave. Zorn produced percussive electro thumps. A perfect context for Drake and his synthesizer sense of color, bowing, a cup vibrating on his strings. Bruckmann’s long high held tones circular breathed left him red faced from the strain. The sudden inclusion of a sitar courtesy DJ UV sharply contrasted Drake’s towel dampened strings. With no mouthpiece on the e horn, Bruckmann blew air through DJ UV’s classical piano record, spun forward and back. Zorn crackled over more piano and Indian music samples. Drake got screechy bowing a metal cylinder Bruckmann intoned a flutter on shenai that sounded motorized.

A brief reprise had classical orchestral samples as a backdrop, and Zorn’s raw rumbling. Drake gave his strings a full handed massage, picking and pulling. Zorn shot sound flares.

Mitchell Brown, electronic; Tucker Dulin, trombone; Brain Eubanks, reeds; Rachel Thompson, violin.

Mitchell Brown’s inventiveness contributed another festival standout. His appearance in an ensemble guaranteed you unique visuals to accompany his original sound endowment. This quartet found Brown astride a bass drum manipulating sounds created by bowing three strings stretched into bricks 4 ft in in front of him. The drum served as a resonator. From there through the laptop Brown again created an original voice. Eubanks blew soprano muted by tom tom, the bell pressed hard against the head. Dulin blew off the mouthpiece and used a plunger mute. Thompson held her bow still and moved the violin for a scratchy sound, contrasting Eubanks’ blunted sound. The sparse, austere piece continued with Dulin dragging the trombone on the concrete floor.

John Berndt, reeds, electronics; Chris Heenan, reeds; Sam Hoyt , trumpet; Scott Looney, piano; Scott Rosenberg, reeds.

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