Capitol Hill, home to numerous artists and arts events, can now add another entry into its burgeoning scene. This weekend, electronic music and visual artists from both Seattle and around the world will descend on Capitol Hill for the second annual Decibel Festival, and you can believe their many fans won't be far behind.
"Decibel is a community arts festival focusing on new music technology and visual art," said Sean Horton, Decibel director and curator. "[It is] a coupling of art installations, computer animation and electronic music performance."
Spanning four days, the festival hosts educational clinics and panels that include discussions on digital music distribution and the relationship between technology and art.
Similarly, numerous visual artists will create installations and performance pieces for the event. But undeniably, the heart and soul of Decibel is its offering of electronic music.
Spread out over seven venues, all within walking distance of each other, more than 60 electronic music producers from around the globe will perform throughout the four-evening affair.
"Decibel aims to produce an enlightening experience for Seattle's music and media community, not some larger regular club night," said Jerry Abstract, Decibel's creative director and the man behind Decibel's evolving brand identity.
After its inaugural year in 2004, Decibel has now become the biggest electronic music festival west of the Mississippi. The secret of its success lies in its uniqueness.
Unlike other multi-day electronic music events both in America and Europe, Decibel focuses almost exclusively on live musical production. While other festivals showcase mainly DJs, Decibel showcases the minds and the people behind the music that make DJing possible in the first place.
More than 90 percent of Decibel's musical artists perform live with software, computers and musical hardware. Whereas a DJ builds a seamless stream of music by combining pre-recorded records and CDs, a live artist instead creates and performs music largely on the spot and largely on the fly.
And, while other festivals typically concentrate their energy on music narrowly tailored for the dance floor, Decibel looks to artists that see their craft in a broader context.
"We're trying to open it up to show people that there's a vast, broad range of different electronic music," said Sara Crow, Decibel's director of communications.
By Horton's count, at least 14 different genres of music will be represented at the festival. The common denominator - each has, in the words of sponsorship coordinator, Kristina Childers, "an electronic backbone."
Nonetheless, fans with dancing shoes needn't worry. If last year is any indication, those who love to cut a rug can expect four nights of foot-stomping, hands-in-the-air excitement.
To an outsider, the trajectory of Decibel's success may seem steep considering the concept was little more than an idea being bandied around an internet mailing list not three years ago.
Inspired in part by Mutek, a Montreal-based electronic music event, Decibel quickly became its own entity with its own singular mission.
During its first year, Decibel sold more than 2,600 tickets and passes nearly matching Mutek's first year sales and given Mutek's current five-year success record, the future looks nothing but bright for Decibel.
While many similar events often suffer from a sophomore slump as they struggle to define themselves and rekindle first-year enthusiasm, Decibel is receiving an avalanche of media attention.
National music magazines plan to cover it, a Chicago radio station will broadcast from it and visitors from as far away as England are expected to make their way to Capitol Hill for the weekend's festivities.
Crow characterized this national attention as "heartwarming." Likewise, Childers said, "I expected it [success] but you don't always expect everyone else to see it right away."
As with most artistic events, profit and commercial gain are hard to come by, but it's clear Decibel's goals reach beyond mere dollars and cents. Clearly, the founders' motivations lie elsewhere.
"We're doing this because these are amazing artists and they should be seen and heard. It's for the music, not for the commercial gain," said Crow.
In fact, Abstract nearly lost his day job due to the time he dedicates to the event.
"It's inspiring for people to come up to me and say, 'I didn't know that this music existed.' 'I didn't know the Northwest had a community of people like this,'" Horton said.
Indeed, the festival acts as a magnet drawing in like-minded musicians and fans from both the Seattle area and from abroad. "Local music and friends is what inspired us to put this festival together," Abstract said.
Choosing which artists to book might seem like a daunting task, but Horton's approach is fairly organic, "I put together a list of artists that have really inspired me."
He then focuses not only on the artist's ability to produce high-quality music but also the artist's ability to perform. "That's what will eventually separate us [from other festivals]. We're really choosing artists that can kill it live."
Horton understands that, when juxtaposed against its number of listeners, instrumental electronic music is arguably the least-well represented genre on the radio. Even if electronic music does make it to the airwaves, it often includes vocals and is geared toward the dance floor.
America, the birthplace of rock'n'roll, loves the front-man and loves the narrative a front-man can provide. Instrumental electronic music offers none of that; hence, its acceptance in America has been slow in coming. Festivals like Decibel aim to change that.
Given the event's rich diversity of artists, the number of venues on Capitol Hill make it a natural for the festival because it encourages musical exploration.
"We want it [the festival] to be accessible to people so if they go to a showcase with someone they've heard of, maybe two blocks away is someone they've never heard of," said Childers.
And for those unschooled in electronic music but wish to check out the festival, Crow without hesitation offered this advice: "Buy a pass and see it all."
The Decibel Festival takes place from Thursday, Sept. 22, through Sunday, Sept. 25. Events are held at numerous venues around Capitol Hill, including Nuemos, the Broadway Performance Hall, Barca, the Bad JuJu Lounge, Chop Suey and the Cascadia Film Collective.
For more information, including performance times, go to www. dbfestival.com.
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