Founded and curated by bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, the third annual Sonic Transmissions Festival encompasses everything from free jazz and improvisational electronics to cumbia.
"It's based in a group that I have going here in Texas," explains the Norwegian native. "The Young Mothers are a melting pot of free jazz, hip-hop, and punk rock. That band has so many genres, so I thought, why not build the festival around it? I was trying to challenge audiences to see that idea, because they can easily fall into this thing that this is just noise and 'He's just trying to be weird, or he's just trying to fusion things.'
"That's not really what I'm trying. I'm trying to prove that music is music [laughs]! That's the one and only thing, really."
Thursday
Night one, co-presented at Barracuda by Self Sabotage Records and Astral Spirits, Thursday, and which Flaten calls "maybe the hippest night of the festival," doubles as the release party for his new solo bass LP
Hong Kong Cab. Berlin electro duo
ILOG, Austin punks
Lung Letters, and Texas experimental guitar duo
Charalambides, joined by Florida free jazz sax titan
Joe McPhee, contribute free range noise. NYC's
Rodenticide, also with a new release on Self Sabotage, blends poetry and free improv, while McPhee collaborates with Baltimore steel guitarist
Susan Alcorn and Chicago sax wizard
Ken Vandermark. Dallas
DJ Mutarrancho fills the spaces.
Friday
Co-staged on Friday night by Epistrophy Arts at Kick Butt Coffee, the Psychedelic Bogotá Cumbia Dance Party boasts the first stateside gig by Colombian cumbia legend
Carmelo Torres, backed by fellow countrymen
Los Toscos. New York guitarist
Brandon Seabrook and Colombian DJs
Gala Galeano and
Pedrito y Su Tumbao also weigh in.
Saturday
Jazz rules Saturday afternoon at Kenny Dorham's Backyard: Austin guitarist Matt Butler's
End of the World Orchestra, Young Mothers'
Jawwaad Taylor (trumpet) and
Stefan González (vibes/drums), a Flaten-led collective called
Black Unity Ensemble paying tribute to
Pharaoh Sanders'
Black Unity album, and
Counter Exchange, an ATX/NYC improv summit featuring multi-instrumentalist
Henna Chou, trumpeter
Jaimie Branch, saxophonist
Carl Smith, and drummer
Tarik Aossey. The Victory Grill closes out STF that evening with Branch, her duo
Anteloper, and Norwegian bassist Eivind Opsvik's post-punk jazz act
Overseas.
