The Eighth Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival

This is the eighth year of San Francisco's incredible Electronic Music Festival, which officially opened on Wednesday. The festival continues tonight through Sunday at Project Artaud Theater, located at 450 Florida Street. There have been some legendary past performances, and this year promises to be no exception. The 2007 edition features an impressive collection of electronic artists from across the continent: MaryClare Brzytwa; the amazing Fred Frith with Patrice Scanlon; Canada's Tim Hecker; Zoe Keating; L.A.'s Kadet Kuhne with Mem1, Leticia Castaneda and Les Stuck; Lesser, and univac; N.Y.'s David Behrman and Annea Lockwood with William Winant; Nommo Ogo; Murcof and .pig, from Mexico respectively. This year, one of the SFEMF evenings (featuring Murcof and .pig) is being co-sponsored by NEXMAP, a non-profit corporation based here in San Francisco, dedicated to the production and appreciation of contemporary and experimental performing art.

About San Francisco's Electronic Music Festival

The San Francisco Electronic Music Festival is an artist-run organization founded in 1999 by a committee of eight, Bay Area, electro-acoustic music and sound art practitioners. Its mission is to provide a highly visible public forum for the diverse community of composers and sound artists working with electronic-based technologies in the Bay Area. Designed as an annual multi-day event consisting of concerts, installations and discussions, the primary focus is on independent artists whose innovative aesthetics challenge academic and commercial standards. The Committee's goals are long-term: to establish the festival as an annual presence in the Bay Area; to foster a greater sense of community among the diverse group of Bay Area sound artists; to stimulate the creation of new electronic sound works; to increase public awareness of new sound-based technologies and their creative applications; to raise the level of discourse surrounding music and sound-art; and to raise the national and international profile of the Bay Area as a center for electronic music and sound art.

Since it's first festival in 2000, SFEMF has presented works that span the sonic spectra from ambient to rhythmic and atonal to melodic by participants ranging from new and emerging young artists to respected pioneers of the electronic music field. Each festival features artists working in a variety of modes including: laptop generated sound, processed live acoustic instruments, amplified found objects, projected video, improvisation, and performance art.

I've always been fond of electronic music, the early synthesizer works of Walter/Wendy Carlos, TONTO, (The Original New Timbral Orchestra), and of course the late, great Bob Moog. Don't miss this chance to glimpse some of the most wonderfully creative masters of electronica on this or any other continent, right here in San Francisco.

The Eight Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
Project Artaud Theater
450 Florida Street
San Francisco, CA
415-626-4370

Thursday, Sept. 6th @ 8:30 pm
MaryClare Brzytwa, univac and Tim Hecker

Friday, Sept. 7th @ 8:30 pm
Leticia Castaneda, Zoë Keating, Les Stuck and Lesser

Saturday, Sept. 8th @ 8:30 pm
Annea Lockwood and David Behrman with William Winant

Sunday, Sept. 9th @ 8:30 pm
Nommo Ogo, Kadet Kuhne (with Mem1) and Fred Frith (with Patrice Scanlon)

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