decay fest

decay fest was a series of eight concerts i organized between august of 2008 and june of 2011.

decay fest was started at a time when i didn't feel i was seeing enough opportunity for beatless, non-melodic electronic music to be played live around los angeles (which is a notoriously useless city for these types of non-commercial music, but is, sadly, where i live). i was seeing plenty of shows featuring beat-oriented performances, and there was certainly no shortage of indie/pop/rock/whatever "band"-type performances happening around town, but i found that whenever i would try to find a drone or noise show, i'd usually come up empty handed (or i'd be forced to endure legions of horrendous "noise-rock" bands at "hip" venues like the smell in order to see a 10 minute set by john wiese, c. spencer yeh and/or aaron dilloway).

so, i decided to take matters into my own hands. knowing full well that i was going to have zero impact on the "la music scene", i felt that i could nonetheless satisfy myself and the few people like me who were actually looking for quality drone shows in los angeles.

the first decay fest took place at pehrspace, and was essentially the genesis moment for the entire khalija project. this first show was a two-night affair, each night running 5 hours or so, and we had a surprisingly large and enthusiastic turnout. we did the second fest a few months later, again at pehrspace, and by that point it was clear to me that this was something we needed to keep going.

the plan was to have two decay fests per year for four years, each featuring a different lineup (or at least a different configuration of artists from previous lineups) and taking place at a different venue each time, but still retaining the initial spirit of bringing new, interesting, aesthetically-satisfying and varied drone and noise performances to los angeles, at an affordable price and in a comfortable, low-key environment. the venues that supported us were few and far-between, and they deserve a great deal of thanks for their help in making these shows happen: pehrspace, echo curio, beyond baroque and dublab. all of the artists who performed at the series also get my undying gratitude for making this happen: anthony cantor, sean price, matthew hettich, scott cazan, casey anderson, clay chaplin, ulrich krieger, adam somers, aaron drake marc nimoy, matthew setzer, will wright kreppel, riley reasor, jeff dodson, sam jones, jasmin ruiz blasco, emma ruth rundle, dave cohen and wylie vasquez cable.

decay fest came to an end in june of 2011, with a final performance at beyond baroque, because, in essence, i felt it had had a good run and didn't want it to start getting bad. i felt i had new performance ideas and formats i wanted to explore, and rather than continuing with decay fest lazily or with lessened interest, i felt i should end it at a high point and then begin on a new series with a blank page.

decay fest will be replaced in 2012 with transmigrations, a series of one-off collaborative performances from members of the khalija collective. where decay fest featured performances from each artist discretely, transmigrations will feature performances by different configurations of khalija artists working together to create a unique musical experience for each installment of the series. more information on this will follow, but for now i can say that the first transmigration will happen at beyond baroque on february 17th, 2012.

a final thank you to everyone who attended the decay fests. i hope you enjoyed them.

-w.