It’s time again for the annual Sonic Circuits, DC’s festival for experimental, improvised, and outside musics, held this year at Rhizome from Sept 15-17. That’s three nights of local, national, and international freak jams. Turntable ensemble Stylus will be performing a new work by band leader Jim Adams on Sunday, Sept 17. As one of the turntablists, I’ll be appearing with the group. The ensemble will be expanded with a guitar section and feature visual projections. If you’re into “difficult” music, don’t miss this!

This official word about the group (from the festival website) will describe it better than I could: “STYLUS is a Washington DC-based turntable ensemble that performs with multiple vintage classroom turntables as their instruments, using locked-groove + prepared vinyl to create a sound that is minimalist, pulse-like + hypnotic yet also dynamic + punctuated. STYLUS performers to date include mainstays of the Washington, D.C. avant-garde, free improvisation, modern composition, noise, + electronic music scene….STYLUS performers for the 2017 SCDC Festival are JS Adams, Jeff Bagato, Chester Hawkins, Janel Leppin, Ryan Martini, Gary Rouzer, Keith Sinzinger, Stéphane Récrosio, vinyl, Jeff Barsky, guitar, John Howard, guitar, Guillermo Pizarro, digital, Mei Mei Chang, visuals.”

“STYLUS will perform “(AT to ER) Apt to Err_Who am the Only One,” a new composition in collaboration with French lo-fi guitarist, Stéphane Récrosio (astatine / acetate z e r o), utilizing commissioned, limited-edition lathe acetates. The performance will include live infrared-video work from Mei Mei Chang and be dedicated to former STYLUS performer, Andrew McCarry (1984 – 2016) . STYLUS warmly embraces the modern compositional elements of turntablism + the contemporary sound-art of Christian Marclay + Philip Jeck. Other influences include such historic constructs as the Futurist manifesto L’arte dei Rumori, Dadaism, Automatism + Russian Constructivism along with Louis Braille, Samuel F.B. Morse, Milan Knížák’s Broken Music, the graphic scores of Cornelius Cardew + Fluxus performance, plus the prepared instrumentation + happenstance of John Cage.”