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Re: What's experimental?



Yes, I agree it is sort of a sexy and hip thing to do these days to 
describe 
an event in a nebulous sort of way with the intent of intriguing potential 
listeners and getting them to attend. In my case, I can only say how 
frequent it was that I talked to potential attendees at the door, while 
they 
were contempleting whether to buy a ticket, and I had to answer their 
question, "What is experimental music?"   I found the more nebulous I was, 
the more academic and clever I was in attempting to do this, the more 
likely 
they would pass on the opportunity. In the end, I found it easier to just 
say, it's mainly a mixture of improvisational and creative music, using 
acoustic instruments, electronics, computers, etc. "Oh", they say..."that 
sounds interesting"...and they walk in. Boise folk, on average, are not as 
adventurous as, let's say someone in a more liberal, coastal city.

I would be curioius to hear Rick's view on this in light of his festival, 
and why he choose such a descriptive title for his festival, vs. something 
not as descriptive, but sexy, like "LoopVision 2008".  :)

Kris

----- Original Message ----- 
>>> Krispen, how about "Boise New Music Festival"?
>>
>> Honestly, what's so new about it?  That phrase always seemed a bit
>> pretentious to me. Most of the music people call new, has been around 
>for
>> years.  Creative music and improvised music is exactly what we are 
>> hearing
>> at the festival now. Is it creative, relatively? Yes. Is it mostly 
>freely
>> improvised? Yes.  I call it what it is and what I want it to be...hence 
>> the
>> new name.
>>
>> Kris
>
>
> Nothing is of course "new" if you really look close enough. But I
> think you are making a mistake if you are not noticing the difference
> between "Kris Hartungs opinions on music" and "the agenda for
> marketing the festival in the public domain". By using a simple name
> that sounds good and looks good in print and that doesn't tell too
> much about what this really is you may get more people willing to take
> a chance on it and also open up for the festival to create its own
> values by its content. With a too descriptive festival name you may
> risk to put people off because they might think that "oh well, this
> must not for me but for those guys that.... etc etc". I mean, everyone
> has his own prejudices and by not declaring to much on the detailed
> plane you may open up for everyones positive thinking. Just like Obama
> did! ;-)) And you know that you have the good program to fill the
> festival with, so it can't go wrong.
>
> Well, at least that's my theory - not knowing much about Boise or
> knowing much about this festival ;-))
> "New" is as good as "Change" as long as you don't specify exactly what
> it's about. The festival might still be "new", some music may be
> "new"... who knows? I just thought it felt non-descriptive enough to
> evoke curiosity.
>
> -- 
> Greetings from Sweden
>
> Per Boysen
> www.boysen.se (Swedish)
> www.looproom.com (international)
> www.myspace.com/perboysen
> www.stockholm-athens.com
>