It’s no secret that I’m excited about going Decibel, hosted in its hometown of Seattle, Washington (USA). The annual festival, taking place on September 26-30th this year, is about a month away, but my travel plans are already all sorted out, and now all I need to do is figure out the schedule of shows which I’m planning to attend. It is something that I am particularly agonizing over, because there are many showcases happening at the same time, and I’m being torn apart with the decision-making process. Help me pick the shows! But as I look at the most amazing roster to date, the excitement takes over, beckoning me to be drenched in a blanket of music for whole five days in a row!
Taking place in over 14 venues of Seattle, the 9th annual festival is expecting to bring in over 30k attendees! Offering performances by 140+ artists from around the world, educational workshops, and speaker panels. This particular event creates a gravitational force for contemporary electronic and experimental music, generating a vortex of creativity, pushing the boundaries of in-depth coverage and the most diverse lineup, which in itself will make your head spin, and rush for the ticket booth to pick up your pass! Here are a few words from Sean Horton, the founder and curator of Decibel Festival:
“Putting together this year’s line-up, I made a conscious effort to avoid jumping on the bandwagon [of mainstream electronic dance music] and instead focus on a diverse selection of artists that I feel have a unique and influential voice that spreads will beyond the current hype. This was a calculated decision on my part and one that I feel will lead to lasting relationships with both our audience and the artists we support. […] The beauty and raw emotion conveyed in so much of the music I’ve discovered over the past year signals a change, much of which I attribute to women playing a more active role as electronic music producers, deejays, performers and fans. […] this is our most diverse line-up both in terms of the amount of countries represented and the amount of female performers.”
– Sean Horton, Note from the Decibel Festival Curator
In my past event previews, I would have taken a few paragraphs to rattle off a list of artists performing at the festival, but honestly, this year’s lineup is so big, that to do so would be an enormous task. Especially, since the crew put together a big flyer listing all of the appearances already. So I’ll take this opportunity to mention a few names that I’m especially excited about, and follow it with an actual flyer. So here we go (in no particular order) : Orbital, Fennesz, John Talabot, Actress, Tycho, Monolake, Tipper, Byetone, DJ Shadow, Clark, Yppah, Machinedrum, Andy Stott, Kangding Ray, Demdike Stare, Biosphere, Orcas, bvdub, Nils Frahm, Windy and Carl, Lusine, Loscil, Dabrye, port-royal, The Sight Below, Peter Van Hoesen, Eprom and Baths…
As Sean Horton promises in his letter, there will be even more announcements about Decibel in the upcoming weeks, revealing the complete program, dB Conference, boat parties, and dB Films! So don’t wait, and grab your pass, and if you make it, drop me a line – I’ll try my best to seek you out and say hello… Perhaps we’ll do a brunch meetup…
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