Outsound Festival

The rebellious souls among us already know where to go for real “alternative” music — music that mixes genres or cultural traditions, or that uses nontraditional instruments, or that explores the liminal area between sound, noise, and musical gesture. But what about the rest of us, ready for a little adventure but not plugged into the scene? Well, Rent Romus, San Francisco’s impresario of the innovative, has put together the eighth annual Outsound New Music Summit at the San Francisco Community Music Center precisely for that audience. The festival runs July 19 and 22-25.

Romus, a saxophonist, runs a year-round music series at the Luggage Store (a gallery on the edge of the Tenderloin) and the Musicians’ Union Hall. His philosophy is “no limits,” meaning that he doesn’t know exactly what will happen during the New Music Summit concerts. He plans them for uninitiated listeners; you just have to like a bit of the unpredictable in your concertgoing experience. “Everything we do has that edge of being fun,” says Romus.

Opening the festival, as always, is the Touch the Gear event (July 19), which is both free and family friendly. Attendees can walk among the instruments, look them over, try a few of them out, and ask questions of the artists. And of course, we’re not talking violins here. For starters, you may get to see a Waterphone up close. This ambient music instrument from the 1960s has become a staple of sci-fi movie and television scores (The Matrix, Star Trek) and also was heard in Tan Dun’s score for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Richard Waters, its inventor, hasn’t performed on the West Coast for many years, though he’s scheduled to appear both in concert and at Touch the Gear. In another vein, you’ll be able to visit a homemade, tabletop, electro-acoustic banjo, created by Tom Duff, a computer-graphics wizard at Pixar Studios. And Marnie Fox will bring the handmade cranks from his Crank Orchestra, among other things.

The concerts themselves are put together around large, somewhat amorphous categories of alternative music — free improvisation and composition (July 22); industrial soundscapes (July 23, earplugs provided); InterMedia (mixed media, July 24); and deep listening and improvisation. The range of music is extraordinary, helped by generous grants from the Zellerbach Foundation and the Meet the Composer Foundation. Unusual uses of computer electronics pop up in profusion. Natto brings its Japanese instruments to the Deep Listening concert, where you can also hear Waters, and the Left Coast Improv Group. Speaking of the latter, Romus says, “It’s an incredible group to behold — cellists, inventions, gongs, electronics, acoustic piano, a Chinese sheng, trumpet, trombone. And it varies.”

For the InterMedia night, composer/performer Jess Rowland has convinced the Dreamland Puppet Theater to travel from Ypsilanti, Michigan, to perform one of the musicals it created with Rowland. Romus is especially excited about the art installation, which will be shown that night. “Kathleen Gilbert has this beautiful set of translucent, recycled food barrels. They’re probably about four-and-a-half feet tall by three or four feet wide. And she lined these barrels with these beautiful cutouts, like old-fashioned shadow puppets. And then inside each one is a little sound device, and you can put your ear up to it and hear the sound. So in the courtyard that night we’ll have seven or eight different barrel scenes. And then inside they’re going to do some type of film and music performance.” And you didn’t think that an alternative music concert could be child-friendly.