Square Waves and Square Knots: time to write a blog entry

So it's almost 7am and I'm tired and a little buzzed and I've been awake all night listening to music and learning how to make a hemp necklace with spirally square knots it's time to write about what I did yesterday.

First of all my wife found a cat! we weren't looking it actually found us, his name (according to the tag) is Stewart, and from the look of him he's been outside a long time. I've decided to name him Stewart Nagasaki Squarewaves at least until his rotten negligent family insists on having him back.

Nagasaki because yesterday was the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki and Square Waves because it was the day that I was supposed to go to the Square Waves electronic music festival at the local library.


I was lucky I remembered what with the new cat-guest and all but I got up and went out to see music and meet up with friends.

I'm not a very competent reporter so I'll just describe what were, to me, some of the highlights of Square Waves and my impressions of the event.

first of all I missed th first two acts. I found my way down to the Alma VanDeussen Room at the library and when I got in there were three ladies playing home made synths and lots of guitar pedals. Finally I was in a room full of people who understand me! Seriously after over a year of disinterested relatives, friends and a saintly-tolerant wife being in a room full of real live not on the intertube synth geeks was a blasy of exciting and headdy fresh air.

At the interval I met these ladies and found a couple of my friends. The next act was one of the highlights for me, a dance troupe called Prophecy Sun did a composition of modern interpretive dance to really penetrating ambient vocal music and tape noise. I think of all the performances this one was my favourite.

I finally got a chance to hear Andrew Short's project Vedic Space Program do a tongue in cheek set consisting of samples from a hypnotism record and other interesting sounds including James Brown and clips from the riots after Martin Luther King was assasinated.

The next group, Stimulus Package played some really amazing electro-accoustic stuff featuring a Tenorion, the first one I've ever seen in real life. I might have to get one.

and lastly a group called Spectrum Interview, composed of members of the other acts and others got onstage for an eery and beautiful experimental synth oddessy. After the show I introduced one of my friends to the rest of them and mingled a bit, there were people filming the event and I'm hoping to get some footage to share with you soon.

If this is the experimental music scene in Vancouver then I want to be right in the thick of it. It felt a bit like coming home.