The Lab recently hosted the 22nd Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (SFEMF), bringing together a wide array of sonic palettes and performers, local and international, emerging and renowned alike. We make mention of two notable showings here, beginning with Roziht Eve, an SF-based Taiwanese American media composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and self-produced singer-songwriter.
Eve’s “Pneuma” is a piece she describes as a “leisurely stroll into one’s inner child.” But it’s no picnic. Roziht’s soft soprano voice, coupled with archetypal visuals by Santiago, lures the audience into a cryptic vault of introspection. Influences of Enya and Debussy are palpable. While lingering there, we watched as Rozhit confronted the initial apprehension of opening the vault. Exploring the depths of the psyche spiritually and ancestrally, “Pneuma” is a story of arriving at tender care for the most vulnerable inner self, a self that also extends to her own child. While watching an icy flower reconstruct itself on screen, Roziht’s six-year-old daughter’s voice emerges from the ethereal soundscape, anchoring us with wisdom from a surprising yet not so surprising source: “who are you? it’s me. you know me. i never left”
Industrial punk fractal synthesis by LA quartet re:VOLT
re:VOLT (photos below) blew our intimate audience out of the water on the second day of the festival. This Los Angeles-based quartet (although only three members were present at SFEMF) identifies as “like-minded half-crazy avant-garde synthesists/composers/producers.” Their group is a dream come true. Firstly, their name is fun – I’m a sucker for wordplay. Secondly, bringing the 21st-century avant-garde technical prowess as well as a full-on band to Morton Subotnick’s 1971 composition “Sidewinder” was even more sonically punk and industrial than expected. re:VOLT’s metallic, fractal bassy sound palette throughout this set made for a playful take on what is already quirky computer music amidst a genre-expansive ‘70s ethos. I loved it, I would like to hear more like this.
