History

Currently organised by a committee under the Audio Foundation, Altmusic is an ongoing series of audio events, regularly bringing a vital injection of contemporary and avant-garde sound art from around the world to New Zealand.

INTRODUCTION by Sally Ann McIntyre
As a turning cog in a thriving local audio art culture, Auckland's Altmusic festival has, since 2001, offered a concentrated gathering point where New Zealand's audio art and experimental music scenes can cross wires with those from other centres (and other peripheries). At the same time Altmusic gives audiences the opportunity to share space with audio artists at the very pinnacle of their field, and previous years have seen programmes of performers who tour rarely and are highly regarded around the world.

Altmusic is listening with an eclectic breadth across a range of sonic trajectories, with programmes including artists investigating the embodied nature of performance and the place of live media within sound culture and some of the world's most respected pioneers of electronic music.

The background to a current worldwide resurgence of interest in genres such as performance art and live cinema has been a critical focus on asking what, exactly, the notion of 'live' presence can mean in an era in which notions of personal embodiment and materiality are shifting. Listening, the perceptive ground of audio art, is always also about grounding perception in the body. Receptiveness to live audio art happens, initially, in an intuitive and often highly personal listening space, although the erudition of artworks whose ethereal material is sound simultaneously moves listening toward the critical and cultural – the perceiving ear is treated as an intelligent, historicised organ.

Altmusic does not offer a unifying framework, into which a genre ('sound art') is neatly packed, rather it attempts to disclose an – often clamorous - discursive space, in which ongoing debate as to what comprises an innovative art of sound can be publicly articulated. Aligned to such utterance is the experiential listening space which is the ground where sound art thrives, and where you, as listener, are given a chance, via the live context, to re-imagine spectatorship as participation. To participate in Altmusic is to join in creating an active, engaged arena in which parameters can be clarified, problematised, and, ultimately, extended.

HISTORY

2001
The festival began as an ARTSPACE project while Robert Leonard was director. Curated by David Watson, there was a strong improv emphasis with most musicians playing sets in different combinations with each other. Happening in March, the festival drew many of its guests from Australia's What Is Music? festival and ran over three consecutive nights, with several gigs also happening in Wellington afterwards.

Performers: David Watson, Jon Rose, Florian Hecker, Jason Smith, Pan Sonic, Tony Buck, Makigami Koichi, Peter Daly, Anthony Donaldson, David Donaldson, David Long
More information about the first Altmusic .

Local magazine The Pander, which had just migrated to an online presence set up this mini-site: http://altmusic.thepander.co.nz

2002
Once more curated by David Watson with a bigger but fairly similar format to 2001. This time happening in July, there was a strong emphasis on the Japanese Improv scene, which was noted in the promotional essay written by Andrew Clifford.
More information about the second Altmusic .

Performers: Sean Kerr, The Flirts (Cor Fuhler and Gert-Jan Prins), Toshimaru Nakamura, David Watson, Tony Buck, Sachiko M, StirrUP (Paul Winstanley, Kingsley Melhuish, Phil Dadson, Marc Chesterman), Gunter Muller, Norbert Moslang, Tetuzi Akiyama, Jeff Henderson, Voice Crack

2004
After a break while ARTSPACE decided what to do next with the festival, a committee formed to keep the festival going. People that helped at different stages include: Andrew Clifford, Zoe Drayton, Richard Francis, Kitt McGregor, Rosy Parlane and Dean Roberts, with enormous support from Tobias Berger, Tessa Giblin and Vikki Henderson and ARTSPACE. This year Altmusic struck up a friendship with Australia's Liquid Architecture festival, resulting in the appearance of French artist Pierre Bastien. Still happening in winter (July), the festival stretched over two weekends with 10 nights of events, artist lectures and a memorably chilly public performance in Aotea Square. The 2004 festival also coincided with the launch of The Audio Foundation.

Performers: Bruce Russell, Lawrence English, DJ Jon Bywater, Tetuzi Akiyama, Alan Licht, Dead C, Anthony Pateras, Michael Morley, Richard Nunns, Natasha Anderson, Oren Ambarchi, Richard Francis, Empirical, Infinitesimal, Kris Wanders, Akiyama/Ambarchi/Licht, DJ Topnotch, DJ Cyg, DJ Moodswing, James Duncan, DJ Um, Coco Solid, Pumice, 10 Acre Bloc, Audible3, SC Cumuna, Pierre Bastien, Tim Coster, Charlotte90, Rosy Parlane, Francisco Lopez

More info and some photos from this festival can still be found in this corner of the ARTSPACE website:

Local legend Chris Knox, who kindly supplied lodgings for his mates Alan Licht and Pierre Bastien, submitted this review to the Public Address website.

See 2006, 2007 and 2008 for more recent events