Curated by festival founder, curator and creative director Sean Horton & interdisciplinary artist Rafael Anton Irisarri, Optical creates a platform for contemporary new media outside the mainstream in Seattle. Performances, films and installations at OPTICAL bridge the gap between these disciplines. The resulting mixed media programing is an amalgam of styles and genres that defy easy classification. Technological, captivating, immersive, entrancing is one way to describe it – beautiful, emotive, and physical is another. In all, creativity to its fullest potential of endless possibilities.

Live re-scoring by Demdike Stare (Modern love)

Polarities in motion, Demdike Stare create tension that pulls vibrations through time’s prism. Refracting the familiar, they shape it into new forms that are almost recognizable, but not quite, leaving you stuttering for the right word, the right description. But perhaps there is where the magic lies – in the un-naming of things – for the sounds they create are not yet known and challenge how we communicate about them.

Decibel proudly invites you to enter a reconstructed present – percolating with fascination, fear & uncertainty – as Demdike Stare re-score surrealist Jean Rollin’s 1970 erotic horror film, La Vampire Nue. Experience what happens when a re-purposed past collides with an imagined future. Fall into darkness with us and ride the self-discovery that emerges.

For this year’s opening Optical performance showcase Decibel is proud to be bringing together three artists that exemplify ambient sound design and composition.

Over the past 18 years, German artist Robert Henke (Monolake) has contributed immensely to electronic music – from his early releases on the now legendary Chain Reaction label to one of the original software developers responsible for Ableton Live. Henke is an expert sound designer and composer – his works range from organic sound design to beautifully haunting compositions that often pay homage to 20th century composers like Philip Glass, Brian Eno and Steve Reich.

Brock Van Wey (bddub) is an American artist and producer currently residing in Shaoxing, China. His compositions have been praised by Pitchfork Media as “built from tapered, drenching loops of tone, massed in respiring pulses.” Beginning his own production forays in 2006, his overtly emotional and hypnotic sound spread quickly through releases on his own Quietus imprint, before further honing his trademark sound into one that has given rise to an army of albums on Home Normal, Echospace [detroit], Darla, Glacial Movements, and many more, as well as becoming a regular three years’ running on Kompakt’s legendary “Pop Ambient” series.

Greek sound artist Dalot (Maria Papadomanolaki) creates a fine balance between sculpting the perfect sound and shattering it . Her compositions may ascend to gilded heights aboard an angelic vocal or divine melody or, conversely, drop the listener into a smoggy dystopia alive only with the whirring of dying machines. Now based out of New York city, her releases for San Francisco’s N5MD label “demonstrates her skill at “creating moments of lush ambience, emotion and texture by blending elements of phonography, electro-acoustic composition and minimal electronica with more traditional musical elements such as voice, guitar, glockenspiel and tablas.”

Audiovisual collaboration between guitar-extraordinaire Christian Fennesz (AT) and Touch label founder & curator Jon Wozencroft (UK).

“Liquid Music was made in 2001, in conjunction with the music Christian Fennesz was developing during that fertile period when the future was still a good idea. The first version was premiered during the Touch tour of 2001, the time of Fennesz’s Endless Summer and the steady movement towards Venice. The footage for Liquid Music originates from Prague, Paxos, Crete, Cephalonia, Messinia, London and one short clip from Monterey Bay. It was filmed on H-8 and mini-DV between 1995 and 2001. The main idea was to film everything through the lens, with no post production other than the compilation of many years work into a coherent whole. Fennesz’s music, and its ascendent quality, made that a pleasure. The optical quality is on the cusp between analogue and digital resolution. In many respects it‚ “an exchange of values as much as working methods.” – Jon Wozencroft (London, 2012)

Wozencroft will be presenting an introduction to the work and a brief Q&A will ensue after the screening.

For our second Optical showcase, we’ll be presenting four incredibly talented artists, all known for manipulating traditional musical instruments (voice, guitars, synths) in very unconventional ways to create ethereal music, to the point in which abstraction meets physical dynamics.

For the past couple years, Brooklyn-resident Julianna Barwick has been at the forefront of hazy pop music. Lacking definable lyrics, Julianna’s songs create their own themes sonically and leave nameless emotional impressions. Julianna’s talents as a vocalist push most of the musical strength in her works, her choice of melodic live vocal looping with vocal percussion is fascinating and dizzying. Described by Pitchfork Media as “as a digital update on sacred hymns”, Julianna’s voice is both timeless and transcendental.

For her Decibel debut, Julianna Barwick will be collaborating with visual artist Christina Vantzou (of The Dead Texan).

Estonian chanteuse Maria Minerva is a psychedelic, avant-pop and lo-fi music producer and artist currently based in London. Her music expresses the alienated restlessness of modern women who inhabit a wi-fi world that combines connectivity and isolation. Her works have been praised by influential journalist Simon Reynolds, who wrote of her music ‘s “high breathy voice in reverb, adding blurriness to the deliberately “smudgy” production.”

Anenon is the brainchild of Brian Simon, an up-and-coming American producer from Los Angeles. Brian carves out highly textured sounds that are extremely personal, patient and thoughtful – music to live inside of, always revealing new paths with each listen.

Opening the showcase are Lulacruza, an an electronic folk duo at the junction of the hypermodern and the ancient. Their music weaves together hypnotic female singing, South American instruments, found sound objects, field recordings, and electronic manipulation.

For our third Optical showcase, we proudly celebrate the 30th anniversary of the legendary British audiovisual organization and publishing company Touch – the longest surviving independent contemporary music publisher in the UK.

Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen, a Norwegian producer who has released a considerable catalogue of ambient electronic music, mostly notably 1997′s Substrata, an album considered by many as one of ambient music’s key recordings. Jenssen has also scored a number of films, including Eternal Stars (1993) and Insomnia (1997). The iconic ambient-techno maestro will present at Decibel Festival selections from his critically-acclaimed album “N-Plants” – a work that explores the beauty and vulnerability of Japanese nuclear power facilities.

Seattle-based interdisciplinary artist, curator and composer Rafael Anton Irisarri will perform under his The Sight Below guise, presenting a special live A/V performance/installation commissioned by Touch. Irisarri’s recorded output – described by Pitchfork as “existing in an undifferentiated welter of pop, techno, and classical” – captures an essential vision of floating tones, deep pulsing bass and textured Gaussian curves. His work is widely published in over a dozen labels around the globe, including respected labels like Touch, Morr Music, Ghostly International, Room40 and Miasmah.

Eleh was formed in 1999 as an exploration of analog synthesis. Influenced by early electronic minimalist pioneers such as La Monte Young, Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros & Charlemagne Palestine, Eleh creates highly minimal and deeply spiritual pure analog electroacoustic music. Eleh’s work emphasizes the physical presence of sound as it has been inspired by the physical world, focusing on tonal juxtapositions, bass tones and various acoustic phenomenon. He has released numerous records on Touch, Important Records and Taiga Records.

On our fourth Optical showcase we explore the endless possibilities of modern classical/minimalist experimentalism: its past, present and future sonic developments, and its resurgence in electronic music cultures.

Sylvain Chauveau is a French composer and multi-instrumentalist artist currently living in Brussels, Belgium. A key figure in the European modern classical scene, Chauveau reduces song structures to clean lines on the piano, which are accented with strings, guitars, winds and voice, balancing the relationship between song and abstraction in a minimalist way. Since 1998, Sylvain Chauveau has composed music for film and dance performances, as well released albums on Fat Cat (UK), Type (UK), LesDisques du Soleil et de l’Acier (FR), and many others labels around the world. His most ambitious piece to date, however, is titled “You Will Leave No Mark on The Winter Snow” – a composition for piano and electronics with an extreme duration: 7 years of silence, with 17 moments of scattered sound through its total duration.

At Decibel Festival, Sylvain Chauveau will premiere in North America new piece titled “The Metaphysical Basis Of Wabi Sabi” – a 43 minute composition for acoustic guitar played with two e-bows, notebook electronics, shortwave radios, non conventional percussion and human voice, all converging in harmony and tonal immersion.

One of Germany’s most exciting new composers, Berlin-based pianist Nils Frahm is quickly establishing himself as one of the most prominent and respected figures in the European post-classical scene. Frahm’s concerts are deeply emotional and have been described as a “cathartic experience.” With three critically acclaimed albums on Erased Tapes under his belt, Nils has worked and collaborated with many contemporaries such as Peter Broderick, Ólafur Arnalds, Anne Müller, Deaf Center, Efterklang and Dustin O’Halloran amongst other fellow musicians.

O R C A S is a duo comprised of haze-pop auteur Benoît Pioulard and post-minimalist composer Rafael Anton Irisarri. Theirs is a style deeply rooted in personal variations on songform and ambient craft, bridging the furthest outlying aspects of their solo work. O R C A S’ debut album was released in April 2012 on Berlin’s respected Morr Music label, followed by an European tour in May and June. Their video for single “Arrow Drawn” premiered on Vice.TV while Pitchfork Media praised their album, calling it “a genuine, coherent album that conjures immense shadows and immense depths worthy of its namesake.”

CFCF is the stage name of Montreal-based electronic musician Michael Silver. His music conjures far-away landscapes and voyages through a style which is at times melancholic, propulsive and ecstatic.

For this year’s final Optical showcase we present three recording artists for the esteemed Chicago label Kranky, perhaps North America’s most influential experimental imprint. Started in 1993 by Bruce Adams and Joel Leoschke, the artists it houses are noted for combining experimental and often electronic influences with elements of more traditional rock structures, and many of the artists on Kranky are inspired by or revolve around ambient, psychedelic, and experimental music.

Space-rock luminaries Windy & Carl hail from Dearborn, MI. Comprised of husband-and-wife duo of guitarist Carl Hultgren and bassist/singer Windy Weber, their droney, blurry sound emanates primarily from guitars, particularly via usage of delay effects, reverb effects, and E-Bow, rather than synthesizers. Together they create music with a wide range of atmospheres, from a warm fuzzy blanket, to a deep ocean, and to the open spaces of a frozen antarctic. Since 1992, they’ve been releasing consistently for a multitude of labels, while running their own record shop, Stormy Records. Highlights of their recorded output includes the albums Depths, Consciousness,and more recently We Will Always Be, all released on Kranky since 1998.

Christina Vantzou is an artist, musician, and composer. She attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (1997-2001) and moved to Brussels, Belgium in 2003 where she currently resides. In recent years sound has become a key aspect of her artistic identity, as a member of The Dead Texan (Kranky) and in 2007 she as a touring member of Sparklehorse. She started to compose her solo works in 2007 using synthesizers, samples, her own voice, and a homemade library of orchestral samples.Over a period of three years, Vantzou meticulously pieced together a 45-minute music composition. Working with Minna Choi (director of Magik*Magik orchestra), who translated the digital score to sheet music for a seven-piece ensemble, these recordings culminated in a debut solo album titled Nº1. The results a sprawling ambient neo-classical score transformed into a full-fledged symphonic suite, which she will be presenting at Decibel Festival this year.

The serene ambient compositions of Loscil come courtesy of Vancouver-based musician Scott Morgan. Taking his moniker from the “looping oscillator” function in the computer music language Csound, Morgan uses custom made Max/MSP sequencers and the occasional live instrument to build robust, droning soundscapes. Morgan cites influences including krautrock pioneers Cluster, minimalist composer Gavin Bryars, and a wealth of film music composers. Loscil’s self-released album, A New Demonstration of Thermodynamic Tendencies, caught the ear of Kranky, who in turn signed Morgan’s project and released Triple Point in October of 2001. Morgan’s second official Loscil album, Submers, followed in 2002, and his third, Plume, arrived in 2006. The highly-praised Endless Falls followed in 2010, a continuous exploration of his signature soundscapes.

Broadway Performance Hall : 1625 Broadway Ave

Doors: 5:30pm

Screening starts at 6:00pm

The Triple Door : 216 Union St

Doors: 5:30 pm

Dalot – 7:00 pm

Brock Van Wey – 7:40 pm

Robert Henke – 8:25 pm

Broadway Performance Hall : 1625 Broadway Ave

Doors: 5:30pm

Screening starts at 6:00pm

The Triple Door : 216 Union St

Doors: 5:30 pm

Dalot – 7:00 pm

Brock Van Wey – 7:40 pm

Robert Henke – 8:25 pm

Broadway Performance Hall : 1625 Broadway Ave

Doors: 7:00 pm

The Sight Below – 7:20 pm

Biosphere – 8:00 pm

Eleh – 8:45 pm

Broadway Performance Hall : 1625 Broadway Ave

Doors: 6:00 pm

CFCF – 6:30 pm

Sylvain Chauveau – 7:15 pm

Orcas – 8:10 pm

Nils Frahm – 9:00 pm

The Triple Door : 216 Union St

Doors: 5:30 pm

Loscil – 7:00 pm

Christina Vantzou – 7:45 pm

Windy & Carl – 8:30 pm