San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2025 Plans

The early days of computer programming (the “mascot image” for this year’s San Francisco Tape Music Festival, from the Festival’s Eventbrite Web page)

Once again the San Francisco Tape Music Festival will mark the beginning of a new year. This event continues to be our country’s only festival devoted to the performance of synthesized audio compositions projected into a three-dimensional space. As in the past, that space is configured with 24 high-end loudspeakers; and, for many of the performances, the projection of the audio sources onto those speakers is controlled in real-time. The results are experienced by the audience sitting in total darkness.

Once again, the Festival will see four performances of “fixed media” compositions by 42 local and international composers. Eleven of those local artists will be (in alphabetical order) Thom Blum, Cliff Caruthers, San Genovese, Matt Ingalls, Cheryl E Leonard, Douglas McCausland, Kristin Miltner, Maggi Payne, Gino Robair, Jon Leidecker, and Michael Zelner. There will also be a survey of electronic music composed in India between 1969 and 1972. Other contributing composers from the past will include Amon Tobin, Luc Ferrari, John Chowning, Laurie Spiegel, Annette Vande Gorne, and Giles Gobeil. Specific dates and times of the four performances are as follows:

• Friday, January 10, 8:30 p.m.
• Saturday, January 11, 7 p.m.
• Saturday, January 11, 9:30 p.m.
• Sunday, January 12, 7 p.m.

As in the past the second Saturday concert will feature late-night appropriate works that lean towards ambient and long-form explorations. The specific compositions to be performed at each of these concerts will be as follows:

Friday, January 10, 8:30 p.m.

• LUC FERRARI - Visage V (1958)
• MAGGI PAYNE - Surface Tension (2010)
• ANNETTE VANDE GORNE - Vox Alia IV: Vox Populi (2023)
• MARTIN BÉDARD - Honey (Architectures From Silence No. 1) (2021)
• MARIE-JEANNE WYCKMANS - Voyage, Voyage (2006)
• S.C. SHARMA - After the War (1969)
• NIKOS KANELIKIS - Inflection Point (2024)
• SAM GENOVESE - Image Storm (2024)
• CHERYL E LEONARD - Eremozoic (2021)
• DOUGLAS MCCAUSLAND - Premiere (2025)

Saturday, January 11, 7 p.m.

• JOHN CHOWNING - Phoné (1981)
• AMON TOBIN - Piece of Paper (2011)
• GILLES GOBEIL - Dans l’air du soir (2019)
• MAŁGORZATA ALBIŃSKA-FRANK and CHARLOTTE HUG - Voices Found (2024)
• ENRICO DORIGATTI - Quantum (2020)
• I.S. MATHUR - Soundtrack of Shadow Play (1969)
• JULIE MONDOR - Phloême (2024)
• THOM BLUM - Combustible (2008)
• CLIFF CARUTHERS - Blue Sky (2006)
• MATT INGALLS - Sketches (2025)
• KRISTIN MILTNER - Premiere (2025)

Saturday, January 11, 9:30 p.m.

• LAURIE SPIEGEL - Patchwork (1977)
• YANNICK DAUBY - Other Topographics (2023)
• CHARLES DELUGA - Ecospherical: The Flood (2023)
• MARCO DIBELTULU - Due atomi di idrogeno e uno di ossigeno (2024)
• DAVID PIAZZA - L’arène aux songes (2023)

Sunday, January 12, 7 p.m.

• KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN - the Spanish anthem section from Region III of Hymnen (1967)
• JOHN CAGE - Medio Mutante (2023, version 23A of “Williams Mix,” originally composed in 1953)
• JOHN OSWALD - Plexture ’24 (excerpt) (2024)
• NEGATIVLAND - Incomprehensible Solution (2020)
• RUTH ANDERSON - DUMP (excerpt) (1970)
• CARL STONE - Apsara (2022)
• PEOPLE LIKE US - Gone Gone Beyond (excerpt) (2022)
• PHILIPPE MACNAB-SÉGUIN - Gone For Eggs (2024)
• DIANA SALAZAR - La Voz Del Fuelle (2012)
• GINO ROBAIR - Doom Scroll (2024)
• WOBBLY - Wild Why (2002)
• MICHAEL ZELNER - Public (2024)

All performances will take place in the Victoria Theatre, located in the Mission at 2961 16th Street, one block east of the 16th Street BART Station and the Muni bus stops on the corner of Mission Street. General admission will be $20 for each concert with a special $10 rate for balcony seating and for the underemployed. The one exception will be the 9:30 p.m. show on Saturday, which will be $10 for all. As in the past, there will be a festival pass sold for all four concerts for $50. Tickets will be available at the door after 7 p.m. on each of the three days of the festival, and only cash will be accepted. Eventbrite has created a Web page for advance ticket purchases for both individual concerts and the festival pass.