By Frank Falestra

In its 10th year, the International Noise Conference returns to Churchill’s Pub, 5501 NE 2^nd Ave.,  on February 6-9.

This year, with funding from Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge, the experimental music festival will expand to four nights. It is an exceptional opportunity for South Florida musicians to perform and network with composers from other cities. The event hopes to create new work originating from South Florida, and has established Miami’s reputation as an important host of experimental music.

Photo by bleedingpalm.com

The conference has become an institution that represents the ground-floor noise underground.  It features over 100 artists that are free to create any ear drum shattering misadventure they wish, some leaning more heavy on noise, some that vaguely resemble actual music. Along with the event’s free entry comes near-constant succession of 15 minute or less performances performed back-to-back, no-breaks. Audience response is nearly always positive and often euphoric. Sonic highlights are strings of effects pedals and low-tech instrumentation usually processing some sort of primitive sound source.

For over two decades Frank “Rat Bastard” Falestra was part of what has become known as the Miami noise scene that played at Churchill’s almost every week. When Rat’s not fronting conflagrations such as Laundry Room Squelchers, or Scraping Teeth, Spin’s worst band in America in 1993, he has created a recording studio and music archive that will supply tools to encourage innovative compositions, which new works will be produced, mastered and broadcast over the internet. He plans to continue to bring International Noise Conference to other U.S. cities and abroad.

Find more information about the International Noise Conference online. More information on the Knight Arts Challenge, a community-wide contest to fund ideas that bring South Florida together through the arts, is available at KnightArts.org.

Photo by bleedingpalm.com