Walkless sound

Electronic dance music performances, an onerous necessity in the shameless interest of ... attendance, are considered by our just-concluded New Forms Festival as "low" events -- inspiring mere human bodies to move to the predictable beat of a repetitive rhythm a crass, vulgar and populist act, an uneasy bedfellow with the lofty and "high" exploratory ideals of the further reaches of art itself... for which accessibility should never be a concern. The most shocking revelation of all may be that, despite my pejorative tone, I am inclined to agree which this characterisation. Booty-shaking is, after all, an old form -- perhaps our oldest! Still, even ghost pianos don't pay the bills.

For those of you who revel in your lowness ("We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars!" - Oscar Wilde... and, later, Fatboy Slim) and want to get lowdown and dirty, today presents two further options for the discriminating Vancouverite. (What, WOTS and the Soundwalk aren't enough for you?)

-- First off, we present what might be styled the intersection of New Forms and an equinoctial celebration ("an offering of light to balance the dark", for any of you who might have missed the pagan ceremonies at Trout Lake last Thursday)... a "renegade" (one imagines that means without city sanction, just so there are no surprises) "outdoor ambient happening," at which participants are invited to bring quiet noisemakers of the wind chime calibre. You might be forgiven for not expecting much to happen at a happening, but this apparently-guerrilla event boasts a lineup of sounds from Noah Susswien, Michael Red (Souns), Tarran + Nayana (Hawah), and Stephanie Loveless with Angelo and Ursula. What precisely they're going to be performing (on a bicycle-powered sound system; shades of last night's Velomutations party!) is unclear, but a mandate statement suggests "blending, enhancing and harmonizing with our environment" will be on the agenda, "listening and being lead by our natural surroundings." Still sounds to me like they'd be better off joining forces with the Soundwalk people, as their copy seems nigh-interchangeable. What happens will happen from 4 pm to sunset (just after 7 pm these days) at Charleson Park (on the False Creek seawall between Science World and Granville Island, if you're too good for my link.) By donation.

-- Dance music being what it is, you might expect a performance at the H.R. Macmillan Planetarium (1100 Chestnut Street) to have less to do with astronomical objects and more to do with heavenly bodies, but sometimes even us cynics can be surprised; tonight at 8 pm (doors at 7:30) the Taurus Incident re-interprets a 1970 album the Planetarium released about the Crab Nebula with visuals by the Stunt Man and live performances by Jaime Clay and Paul Plimley. Incidental music is provided by Decaf, Sipreano, Knowing Looks, Seekers International, Morgen Bartos, Deiter Hopfner and my old student Psidream. It's not too late to pick up tickets ($15) at Zulu, Beatstreet, Scratch, and Noize Records.