A friend and I spent the weekend in Seattle, WA this past weekend for Substrata 1.2 (a really great music festival). We flew up on Friday and left on Sunday morning. Friday night’s lineup included: Lawrence English, Scanner, and Daniel Menche. I had not really heard any of the three before seeing them live (though I had heard of Lawrence English’s label Room 40). I intentionally did not listen to any of these artists before going, as I wanted to experience them as something completely new to me. They were all unique and wonderful. Day 2 featured artists I was more familiar with: Tim Hecker, Pan American, Loscil, and Widesky. There was also a panel discussion on Saturday afternoon, along with a talk with Lawrence English about the effects of human generated noise on our surrounding environments.

Lawrence English


Scanner

After the talks on Saturday we drove a few hours out into the mountains to see The Big 4 Ice Caves. The caves that were there at the time of our visit were much smaller, but were really quite neat. It was a lovely little mile and a half hike through the woods and you come out of the treeline onto snow/ice. It had gotten so humid and hot that it was a welcome relief to have the cool air coming out of the caves and off the mountain. We did some recording. I got an awesome recording of the ice melting and cracking underneath an ice ledge. Sadly, we had to rush back to see the second days events. We missed the first bit of Widesky’s performance. Here are a few photos from the area of the caves:

I know this doesn’t directly deal with my music (the usual subject of this blog), but I highly recommend Substrata to anyone who is able to go next year (assuming they do a 1.3). Also, I just thought it would be nice to share a little bit of something that I had a blast with. I hope you all have been having a great Summer (or winter for those in the southern hemisphere).