Big Ears 09

CREATIVE LOAFING • 02.17
Live Review: Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn.
by Omar Khalid

If one thing stood out about the festival, it was how professional, yet easy the whole experience was. There were as many as 10 venues involved, all seeming to be just blocks from each other, with everything starting on or near on time.
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NEW YORK TIMES • 02.10
Slow Down, Music Fans, for Singular Visionaries
by Ben Ratliff

You could say that Big Ears was for people who like hearing nuanced music in excellent theaters, in a small town with no hassle: a place where you can walk down the main drag on Saturday night and see 10 yards of empty space between you and the next pair of feet. You could also say that Big Ears was for people with long attention spans, good concentration and an appetite for letting repetitive non-dance music wash over them. And at least in its first edition — Mr. Capps intends to repeat Big Ears in Knoxville, and also export the idea to other cities — Big Ears was for concertgoers who appreciate not hearing a lot of introductions and context and sponsor announcements before the music even starts. In other words, at times it was heaven.
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pitchfork • 02.10
Report: Big Ears Festival
by Grayson Currin

Three of the festival's best sets came from three of its most venerated guests. On Friday, Christian Fennesz, playing his only scheduled American date for 2009, improvised through a morphing medley of his benchmarks, including tunes from Endless Summer and Black Sea. Fennesz reinvented things that seemed so perfect at first listen, shocking the colossal chords of "Glide" with guitar noise and, at one point, sending shivers of a Merzbow din through the attentive room.
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THANK YOU! • 02.09
Thanks to everyone for a great festival. What an amazing weekend of performances. Stay tuned for photos from the weekend and more!
view a few photos here

METROPULSE GUIDE TO BIG EARS • 02.06
All you wanted to know about Big Ears 09, with continuing, live coverage

Key players, their stories, and their show times..."The roots of the Big Ears Festival go back to 1979, when Ashley Capps booked his first show, a performance by the free-jazz cellist Tristan Honsinger at the Laurel Theater. Capps has made his professional reputation in the years since as the head of AC Entertainment, one of the biggest concert promoters in the Southeast and co-founders of the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn. But back then he was a 23-year-old University of Tennessee student and part-time DJ on WUOT 91.9 FM, interested—even obsessed—by contemporary jazz, modern composition, punk and New Wave, and international music. Nobody else was bringing the artists he wanted to see to Knoxville, so he started doing it himself."

Live blog coverage from a collection of staff members and Metro Pulse contributors..."[Neil] Hamburger was "funny" as ever, his comedy-routine-as-comedy routine and unpredictably terrible (often in two senses) punchlines sharpened for the Big Ears occasion ("okay, we're going to tell a few jpkes, and then someone is going to come out and shit in a bowl to high pitched noises") (which i probably just butchered), but perhaps the funniest thing was the high-spirited, high-volume young lady at the bar, guffawing and squealing in delight (even cutting down the setup to an extended series of Heath Ledger gags with "i love him!") to such great effect that the never-shy Hamburger had no response to it, instead saving his ire for punchline-steppers and earnest requests of "classic" material."

Art Director Travis Gray Twitters his experience..."BIG EARS: was matmos' "civil wars" more of a rock album or a pop album? MTE says rock. I say pop, so it must be pop."

ATHENS BANNER-HERALD • 02.04
Knoxville might be a relatively small American city, but this weekend, its ears will get mighty big. The Tennessee town is playing host to the debut of the three-day Big Ears Festival this weekend, featuring the likes of such esteemed artists as Philip Glass, Fennesz, Matmos, Antony and the Johnsons and Pauline Oliveros - a lineup of musicians who rarely perform in the U.S., much less the Southeast.
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ANTONY HEGARTY ON NPR • 02.03
NOON Tuesday • Fresh Air from WHYY
Antony Hegarty, of Antony and the Johnsons, will be Terry Gross’ guest on Fresh Air today.
Listen Here

BIG EARS IN THE NEWS • 02.01
• Arts Electric - interview with Ashely Capps
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution - feature
• Pitchfork - news item
• Knoxville News-Sentinel - Philip Glass feature
• Knoxville News-Sentinel - feature
• Knoxville News-Sentinel - Jon Hassell feature

BIG EARS KICKOFF WITH MATMOS • 01.30
5:00pm Friday • Knoxville Museum of Art
Matmos will kick off the festival at the Knoxville Museum of Art’s “Alive After Five!” Show starts at 5:00. Your pass will get you in or tickets will be $10 at the door. To purchase a festival pass
click here.

BIG EARS SCREEN PRINT JAM • 01.30
5:00pm Friday • Knoxville Museum of Art
On Friday February 6th a “Screen Print Jam” will be held at the Knoxville Museum of Art in conjunction with the Kick-off for the Big Ears Festival. Participating artists will be Ben Fox-McCord, Daniel Maw, Erin Mullenex, Katie Ries, Veronica Siehl and Ericka Walker, all printmaking students at the University of Tennessee. They will be joined by Justin Helton, concert poster artist and graphic designer for AC Entertainment.

The Screen Print Jam will involve multiple combinations of layered images, all related to the theme “Big Ears.” Each print will be a unique combination of images and colors. The resulting prints will be displayed during the event.

Ink for this project is provided by the UTK Print Workshop. Paper has been donated by French Paper Company.

LATE NIGHT AT THE CATALYST! • 01.30
midnight Friday • Catalyst
Hello City: micro-sets from the home fires of Knoxville's experimental and psych/rock artists, strung together into a continuous performance. featuring Bright Shuttle, Double Muslims, Fecal Japan, Mountains of Moss, New Madrid, and Psychic Baos. Your pass will get you in or tickets will be $5 at the door. Show starts at midnight

ARTS ELECTRIC • 01.30
Ashley, as a concert promoter, you are known for starting the concert promotions company AC Entertainment, managing the historic Tennessee and Bijou Theatres, and co-producing the Bonnaroo Music & Art Festival. What made you turn your sites toward the electronic avant-garde?
| read more... |

HARDWARE HACKING WORKSHOP with Nicolas CollinS • 01.27
2:30pm Saturday • 5th Floor of the Woodruff Building
Nicolas Collins, author of the underground classic Handmade Electronic Music – The Art of Hardware Hacking, offers a workshop in converting common household electronics into musical instruments. Participants will combine old loudspeakers, batteries and rusty metal into “Victorian Oscillators”, and will transform portable radios into expressive, touch-sensitive synthesizers. No previous electronic experience is required. The workshop will culminate in the premiere performance by the Knoxville Hacking Orchestra.

Each participant in the workshop should bring the following items:

1) A portable, battery-powered radio, with appropriate batteries. Make sure the radio works before you come! It should be cheap enough that you won’t be too angry if it never works again. The AM band is more important than FM, but it doesn’t matter if the radio picks up both. It should have analog tuning (i.e., a dial) rather than digital presets or scan buttons. Larger radios are easier to work with than tiny ones, and older ones always sound better than new ones. It should have a built-in speaker, not just a headphone jack. And most importantly: IT MUST BE BATTERY POWERED! Beware: an alarm clock radio with a built-in “backup battery” is not suitable, since it requires AC power to function as a radio.

2) One or more raw loudspeakers of any size (just the speaker, not enclosed in a cabinet or box). These can come from a car stereo, an unused boombox, an old HiFi, a TV, etc. Bigger is better.

3) 2 nine-volt batteries.

4) Some small pieces of corroded or rough-surfaced scrap metal.

To sign up for the Hacking Workshop email here. There is limited space so sign up now.

LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN • 01.27
Don’t forget about the upcoming Big Ears Listening party!

Wednesday January 28 • 9:00PM
Pilot Light - 106 E. Jackson
Featuring music and visuals by artists preforming at Big Ears.

FINAL SCHEDULE • 01.21
Just announced! The final Big Ears Festival Schedule. All the performances, workshops, lectures, and much more for the weekend! Click here for the full schedule.
Download a | PDF copy | of the schedule.

ANTONY AND THE JOHNSON'S NEW ALBUM • 01.19
Antony and the Johnson’s new album releases Tuesday January 20th. Pitchfork review.

MAGNET • 01.17
Big Ears: A Festival For The Indoor Kids
The first edition of the Big Ears Festival will take place in Knoxville, Tenn., on Feb. 6-8. An event created by the co-founder of Bonnaroo (Ashley Capps), Big Ears has a lineup that caters to experimental and avant-garde music fans. Among the performers are Antony And The Johnsons, Philip Glass, Matmos...| continue reading |

PASTE • 01.17
KNOXVILLE'S BIG EARS FEST CATERS TO ADVENTUROUS AUDIENCE

By Liz Stinson

There's yet another reason to save up your hard-earned cash and travel to the musical state of Tennessee. Only this time, don’t expect bars full of cover bands, hippies or the CMT headquarters.

Living up to its name, Knoxville’s Big Ears festival truly is suited for those with, well, big ears. World-renowned composer Philip Glass is attending, as is Baltimore-based electro dude Dan Deacon, the Mercury prize-winning cabaret act Antony and the Johnsons and a trio including Mark Linkous and Scott Minor of Sparklehorse (plus many many more boundary-pushing artists). Not a bad line-up for a debut festival....| continue reading |

JUST ANNOUNCED • 01.15
We're excited to announce a limited number of tickets to the following performances will go on sale Friday at 10:00 AM. These shows are automatically included with both the Inner and Outer Ear passes. To purchase tickets please visit www.bigearsfestival.com

Dan Deacon + Baltimore Round Robin • Saturday midnight • $15
The Catalyst - 125 E. Jackson St.
Dan Deacon will be at Big Ears with the Wham City Round Robin. The shows he performs in his native Baltimore, namely those at Wham City, (the live-in artists collective and DIY venue/theater that he calls home), are especially notorious for its frenzied crowds. This will be one of 3 shows, and the only one with the Round Robin, in the US before he heads to New Zealand and Australia.

Matmos • Saturday 10pm • $20
The Square Room - 4 Market Square

Pauline Oliveros • Sunday 1pm • $20
The Knoxville Museum of Art - 1050 Worlds Fair Park Dr.
Through Deep Listening Pieces and earlier Sonic Meditations Oliveros introduces the concept of incorporating all environmental sounds into musical performance. To make a pleasurable experience of this requires focused concentration, skilled musicianship and strong improvisational skills, which are the hallmarks of Oliveros' form. In performance Oliveros uses an accordion which has been re-tuned in two different systems of her just intonation in addition to electronics to alter the sound of the accordion and to explore the individual characteristics of each room.

She will also host a Deep Listening Workshop at the Woodruff building on Saturday at 1:00 PM.

Ned Rothenberg collaborating with Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck, and Lloyd Swanton (members of The Necks) • $20 • Sunday 6pm
The Knoxville Museum of Art - 1050 Worlds Fair Park Dr.
In addition to The Necks Friday night performance at the Bijou, members of The Necks will be collaborating with the legendary Ned Rothenberg. This is a once in a lifetime chance to see these amazing musicians work their magic. Ned will also be performing throughout the weekend. Stay tuned for more details.

LISTENING PARTY, KNOXVILLE TN • 01.15
Join Big Ears for listening parties from now until the festival. More to be announced.

Wednesday January 22 • 9:00PM
Pilot Light - 106 E. Jackson
Featuring early film footage of the Philip Glass Ensemble and selections from the works of Christian Fennesz.

Big Ears WEEKEND PASSES:
A new weekend festival pass, the Outer Ear is now available for $100. The Outer Ear pass gives you priority admission to all Big Ears events except Philip Glass, Antony and the Johnsons and the Festival Finale with Michael Gira and Fennesz/Linkous/Minor and featuring Larkin Grimm. Quantities are limited.

We still have a few remaining premium passes, the Inner Ear, which offers reserved seats and priority admissions to all performances.

Inner Ear Pass • $195 (admission to all performances)
Outer Ear Pass • $100 (admission to all performances except Philip Glass, Antony and the Johnsons and the Festival Finale with Michael Gira and Fennesz/Linkous/Minor and featuring Larkin Grimm)

Big Ears Individual Tickets • 01.08
We are also making available a limited number of reserve seat tickets to individual shows taking place at the Bijou Theatre. Click the below show names to purchase tickets.

Fennesz • $25
Friday, February 6, 2009 at 8pm

Jon Hassell + Maarifa Street • $25
Friday, February 6, 2009 at 10:30pm

Philip Glass • $50
Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 3pm

Antony & The Jonhsons • $35
Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 8pm

The Necks • $20
Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 11pm

Negativland • $25
Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 2:30pm

Festival Finale: Michael Gira & Fennesz/Linkous/Minor and Larkin Grimm • $30
Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 7pm

All tickets are available HERE or by calling the Tennessee Theatre box office 865 684 1200.

NEW ARTISTS ANNOUNCED • 01.06

Joining the already insanely brilliant Big Ears line up are a bespectacled comedian, avant gypsy punks from NYC, and an ambient puppeteer.

Comedian Neil Hamburger will be joining the lineup for a weekend of riotous humor.

Luminescent Orchestrii with Sxip Shirey will bring mondo-gypsy punk sounds to Knoxville all weekend long.

Fence Kitchen from Philly brings the singular vision of puppeteer Tim Harbison, set to live and prerecorded sounds.

Ok that’s a lot of new information, so pay attention because we have even more to let you in on; including full disclosure of a fascinating variety of demonstrations, workshops, discussions and installations by select Big Ears Artists – hacking, circuit bending, some deep listening...

FENNESZ’ BLACK SEA AMONG “BEST OF 2008” • 12.30.08

Although not released until very late in the year, Fennesz’ remarkable Black Sea has been enthusiastically received, placing in Pitchfork’s Top CDs of 2008 as well as in the Best of the Year lists of a number of discerning critics.

To quote the Other Music newsletter, “It’s a record that demands your absolute attention…To put it simply, Black Sea is Fennesz's most mature, most delicate album to date, and possibly his most beautiful…A genuine contender for album of the year.”

We’re thrilled that Fennesz will be making his first appearances in several years in the USA at Big Ears. He will perform solo as well as present his collaboration with Mark Linkous and Scott Minor from Sparklehorse during the course of the weekend.

INITIAL SCHEDULE AND NEW TICKETING OPTIONS • 12/30/2008
We’ll be announcing details for much of the Big Ears schedule next week (the week of January 5), along with information about talks, workshops, installations, and more. At the same, we’ll be making a limited number of reserved seat tickets to many of the individual theatre shows available, as well as an additional weekend pass option.

ADDITIONAL TICKET SALES • 12/24/2008
A limited number of reserved seat tickets for all theater performances will go on sale immediately after the first of the year, along with an additional festival pass. This ticketing information – and more – will be announced between Christmas and New Year’s day. Visit our website, or, better yet, sign up for the Big Ears newsletter to stay up to date on new festival information.

Happy Holidays!

New Artists Added! • 12.19.08
Big Ears is excited to announce the following additions to the line up for our inaugural festival, Feb. 6 – 8, 2009, in Knoxville, TN:

• Violinist and electronics composer C. Spencer Yeh will perform with his visionary Burning Star Core

• Electronic pioneer and hardware hacker Nicolas Collins will lead a workshop building electrical instruments from unlikely sources

•Master electronic party impresario Dan Deacon will be bringing his Baltimore Round Robin

• Avant folk gypsy Larkin Grimm will perform her spellbinding songs

• Internationally acclaimed woodwind virtuoso Ned Rothenberg will perform solo as well as collaborate with others

• San Agustin will create haunting moments of introspection, enveloped in clouds of bluesy guitar notes, then sweep it all away with great electric gales

•Improvisational sorcerers the Shaking Ray Levis will conjure up their "old timey" avant-garde

Hotel and Travel PackageS • 12/19/2008
Don´t forget to book your travel and hotel rooms. The festival is offering discounted hotel rates through Jan. 7 at these | Hotels | Hotels are within walking distance of all the venues.

the Ampy Ant Cafes • 12.18.08
Discussion stations will be located throughout the Big Ears festival where festival goers can take a break, relax and meet each other. Live and evolving ambient music will be provided by musicians at each location. As part of this process, the musicians will interview willing festival attendees and may include portions of the shared conversation into special musical pieces. The newly created pieces will be provided online and often on-site throughout the festival. Be sure to bring a jump drive. Special high quality green and black teas and herbal infusions will be served at these venues, sometimes by the musicians themselves.

Big Ears on Pitchfork • 12.08.2008
The Tennessee festival landscape will get a little larger next year with the inaugural Big Ears, a new fest spearheaded by one of the founders of Bonnaroo...| read more |

Press Release • 12.08.2008
EXPLORATORY ‘BIG EARS FESTIVAL’ ANNOUNCED FOR FEBRUARY 6 – 8, 2009 IN HISTORIC KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE

IMMERSIVE, ADVENTUROUS GATHERING TO INCLUDE PHILIP GLASS, ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS, FENNESZ, MICHAEL GIRA, JON HASSELL & MAARIFA STREET, FENNESZ, MATMOS, THE NECKS, NEGATIVLAND, PAULINE OLIVEROS AND MANY MORE

The weekend of February 6 – 7 – 8, 2009 will see the maiden voyage of a new “boutique” music festival concept called BIG EARS in Knoxville, Tennessee. The mission of BIG EARS is to create a dynamic cross-genre music and arts festival experience. Spearheaded by Ashley Capps, president of AC Entertainment and longtime fan of cutting edge music, the BIG EARS experience will include concerts by legendary innovators along with young cutting edge visionaries and experimentalists crossing a variety of genres. The festival will also include art installations, exhibitions, performance art, seminars with artists, and interactive experiences.

Perhaps best known as a founder and producer of the acclaimed mega-festival, Bonnaroo, Capps envisions a very different experience at Big Ears, “Big Ears is conceived as a boutique festival, appealing to a very focused audience of music fans with adventurous tastes. We’re hoping to sell a thousand tickets to our inaugural event, but we intend for everyone who attends to have an extraordinary experience.”

Capps envisions BIG EARS as happening several times a year in different cities – with each festival loosely defined by a unifying thread. In keeping with its moniker – BIG EARS is a term often used to describe especially gifted and insightful listeners- the inaugural festival’s concept is about listening. “I have a compelling interest in music that demands your complete attention, that quietly insists that you slow down and listen - and that transports you into another world. It seems that there are others who long for that experience as well. And this is a quality common to the music of many of the artists performing at BIG EARS in February,” says Capps.

Artists confirmed include enormously influential composer/performer Philip Glass; 2005 Mercury Prize-winning cabaret act Antony and the Johnsons; trumpet wizard Jon Hassell and his multi-cultural trance fusion band, Maarifa Street; Australia’s improvising ambient groove trio The Necks; Swans-founder and godfather of the new avant-folk movement Michael Gira; sonic anarchists Negativland (presenting their subversive “live” radio show “It’s All in Your Head”); the richly textured electronic soundscapes of Fennesz; the ever-inventive electronic group Matmos; and, last but not least, renown composer and electronic music pioneer, Pauline Oliveros will present her meditative Deep Listening experiences. More additions to the weekend line up will be announced soon.

The selection of Knoxville, Tennessee as the launching pad for Big Ears is not an accident. “We wanted to create a ‘getaway’ event, outside of the usual major cultural centers, and Knoxville is a great choice. There are two fabulous historic theaters with extraordinary acoustics (including the 750-seat Bijou which celebrates its 100th Anniversary in 2009) along with a variety of other great venues, including the legendary experimental music outpost, The Pilot Light, and the Knoxville Museum of Art; excellent restaurants, and downtown hotels…and they’re all within a short walk of one another…plus, it’s our hometown and we want to show it off!”

Weekend festival passes – which offer admission to all festival concerts (subject to available capacity) – are priced at $j195.00 plus applicable service fees and will be available beginning Friday, Dec. 5 at 10:00am Eastern. They may be purchased through www.bigearsfestival.com or by calling 865.684.1200 ext. 2 between the hours of 10:00am and 5:00pm eastern. More festival details, including travel and hotel information and up-to-the-minute news and additions to the line up, are also available at the BIG EARS website.

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For more information contact:
Carla Parisi
Kid Logic
kidlogic@nj.rr.com
973-563-8204