Todd Steed and a semi-rotating panel of associates (sorry, potential musicians of note, but he's the only one I recognize offhand) are giving a Big Ears home to Experimentalus Localus at Java this weekend.
Guitars, a few dozen pedals, and a Brian Eno app on an iPod Touch, oh my! Lots of wahs and echos and layering and prerecorded sound bites from patrons combine to create a certain...you guessed it, ambience!
Unfortunately, tonight's Ampient Cafe suffered from the same anemic audience syndrome which plagued an installation or two last night. The audience has been a fairly revolving-door affair with people in and out for the duration, but not really much more than you would expect in a coffee shop on a Saturday night I blame simultaneous audience-grabs from Antony and the Johnsons at the Bijou and MTE favorite Local Noise and Metal at the Pilot Light.
Unless Negativland completely monopolizes Sunday afternoon's Big Ears crowd (or Matmos decides to book a Sunday afternoon Square Room show), I expect tomorrow's Ampient prospects to be better.
Unfortunately, tonight's Ampient Cafe suffered from the same anemic audience syndrome which plagued an installation or two last night. The audience has been a fairly revolving-door affair with people in and out for the duration, but not really much more than you would expect in a coffee shop on a Saturday night I blame simultaneous audience-grabs from Antony and the Johnsons at the Bijou and MTE favorite Local Noise and Metal at the Pilot Light.
Unless Negativland completely monopolizes Sunday afternoon's Big Ears crowd (or Matmos decides to book a Sunday afternoon Square Room show), I expect tomorrow's Ampient prospects to be better.



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