DOCUMENTATION
Pauline Oliveros (USA), Ione (USA), Phil Dadson
Metamkine (France), Plains
Runzelstirn and Gurglestock (Switzerland/Japan), Dave Phillips (Switzerland) Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device (Australia) Crude.
Tim Hecker (Canada), Antony Milton, Nigel Wright

As a turning cog in a thriving local audio art culture since 2001, Auckland’s Alt.music festival has 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, Alt. Music gives audiences the opportunity to share space with audio artists who are at the pinnacle of their field. Previous year’s programmes have seen performers who tour rarely and are highly regarded around the world. This year is no exception; in 2007 Alt.music is listening across an eclectic breadth of sonic trajectories with a programme that includes artists who investigate the embodied nature of performance and the place of live media within sound culture, as well as a special appearance by one of the world’s most respected pioneers of electronic music.

The background to a 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 also always 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.

Alt.music 2007 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 about 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 Alt.music is to join in creating an active, engaged arena in which parameters can be clarified, problematised, and, ultimately, extended.
Sally Ann McIntyre

Alt.music is an ongoing series of events, regularly bringing a vital injection of contemporary sound art from around the world to New Zealand. Organised by the Audio Foundation, Alt.music began as an international festival of experimental music and sound art in 2001, followed by successive festivals in 2002 and 2004. Previous Alt.Music artists include Keith Fullerton Whitman, Peter Rehberg, David Toop, Pan Sonic, Tetuzi Akiyama, Jon Rose, Voice Crack, Sachiko M, Francisco Lopez, Pierre Bastien, Oren Ambarchi, Alan Licht, Richard Nunns and the Dead C.

Alt.music is supported by Creative New Zealand, Fulbright New Zealand, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, AUT, ARTSPACE, The University of Auckland’s National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries, Liquid Architecture, Room40, VIT S,Telecom 39th Auckland International Film Festival and The Edge in association with Stamp
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DOCUMENTATION
Pauline Oliveros (USA), Ione (USA), Phil Dadson
Metamkine (France), Plains
Runzelstirn and Gurglestock (Switzerland/Japan), Dave Phillips (Switzerland) Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device (Australia) Crude.
Tim Hecker (Canada), Antony Milton, Nigel Wright

As a turning cog in a thriving local audio art culture since 2001, Auckland’s Alt.music festival has 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, Alt. Music gives audiences the opportunity to share space with audio artists who are at the pinnacle of their field. Previous year’s programmes have seen performers who tour rarely and are highly regarded around the world. This year is no exception; in 2007 Alt.music is listening across an eclectic breadth of sonic trajectories with a programme that includes artists who investigate the embodied nature of performance and the place of live media within sound culture, as well as a special appearance by one of the world’s most respected pioneers of electronic music.

The background to a 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 also always 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.

Alt.music 2007 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 about 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 Alt.music is to join in creating an active, engaged arena in which parameters can be clarified, problematised, and, ultimately, extended.
Sally Ann McIntyre

Alt.music is an ongoing series of events, regularly bringing a vital injection of contemporary sound art from around the world to New Zealand. Organised by the Audio Foundation, Alt.music began as an international festival of experimental music and sound art in 2001, followed by successive festivals in 2002 and 2004. Previous Alt.Music artists include Keith Fullerton Whitman, Peter Rehberg, David Toop, Pan Sonic, Tetuzi Akiyama, Jon Rose, Voice Crack, Sachiko M, Francisco Lopez, Pierre Bastien, Oren Ambarchi, Alan Licht, Richard Nunns and the Dead C.

Alt.music is supported by Creative New Zealand, Fulbright New Zealand, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, AUT, ARTSPACE, The University of Auckland’s National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries, Liquid Architecture, Room40, VIT S,Telecom 39th Auckland International Film Festival and The Edge in association with Stamp
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