The progressive and experimental music community in Austin continues to grow. As we gear up for the 2016 Voyager Music Festival, we wanted to provide our readers with a recap of the 2016 season of events, from VoyagerFest and beyond.

– In early 2016 VoyagerFest was officially approved for Texas non-profit status! With this designation, we are able to apply for funding to host charitable events, workshops, and serve the community with state and city support.

Kicking off 2016 with Voyager Nights
VoyagerFest began hosting a concert series to promote for the annual festival and to also provide more platforms for our experimental artists. On January 24, 2016, we held our first Voyager Night at Stateside Theater. eBurner opened the night, and then Ponytrap performed their multi-media production, “Promethean Waltz.” It was a great turnout and success!

Experimental and Progressive Music at SXSW
Bands we love and support made some incredible music during SXSW. Chasca kicked things off at The Highball on the opening Saturday, and Descendants of Erdrick performed at Ugly Fest at Cherrywood Coffeehouse midweek. While there is always much activity going on in Austin, some of the progressive circle migrated to San Marcos for SMFest! This was their first annual gathering down in the hilly college town. Another de Sade did an early set on the Friday of that weekend at Gold Crown near the Square, while Black Ladder entertained the crowd at pizza joint, Valentinos. eBurner hit the stage at Stonewall Warehouse later that night.

Documentary Premiere Party
The second Voyager Night was on April 16, 2016 at The North Door, and this was also the release of our documentary, featuring commentary from last year’s artists. Descendants of Erdrick opened the night, we showed the documentary on the projector screen, and then Circling Drones closed the evening. We are very proud of this short film, and we encourage our readers to share the link!

Austin’s Progressive Music Community Keeps on Growing!
In the interim, the progressive music scene has been busy! Stop Motion Orchestra and Opposite Day teamed up for one of the last shows at Salvage Vanguard Theater; Transit Method‘s EP Release Party was at The Sidewinder in May, coinciding with an event hosted by 101X; more studio work for Proud Peasant at Ohm Recording Facility; and The Aaron Clift Experiment has been nominated for the Progressive Music Awards 2016 while staying active in progressive rock shows throughout Austin.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK

– The Aaron Clift Experiment, Thirteen of Everything, Seven Circles, and Black Ladder will be at Lucky Lounge on July 22, 2016! Check out the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/169750743441518/

– Groove Think, Opposite Day, Transit Method, and Jam Therapy will be sharing the bill for Groove Think’s Tour Kickoff on July 23, 2016 at The Sidewinder! Check out the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/150969178647031/

For continuous updates, please check our Facebook page, or you can check out our articles written here by Walter Daniel, Andy Roach, or myself – Lauren Lyman. Also, you can check us out on Twitter and Instagram too!

We are really looking forward to all of these events and the festival, and we thank you all for your support!

Following the first annual Voyager Music Festival, the VoyagerFest organization began coordinating a series of events during the year, which are intended to help build interest, awareness, and a broader audience for the next festival. For the first event, we could not be more excited to have Ponytrap perform a new experimental production entitled Promethean Waltz. The group will headline the event on January 24, 2016 at the Stateside Theater.

The overall intent of the work is to influence society to find human connection in a world overrun by technology. The artists wish to convey this using video projections (by RECSPEC)  string instruments, robot drummers (including one that is larger than life) vocals, theatrics, and more. At the core of Ponytrap are husband and wife, Quentin Thomas-Oliver and Hilary Thomas-Oliver, the former performing on viola and the latter on cello.

“The theme of the show is around the search for home and belonging, ” Hilary said. “In a really direct way, the show is about us building the robots, and we built the robots because Quentin had, for a very long time, he had a vision in his head of this musical project, and he couldn’t find the right drummer to participate so he turned to technology and built the drummer. So, it is the story of us coming to that realization-we can just build it.”

The vision began about twenty-five years ago, during Quentin’s music training. He wrote the music for Promethean Waltz at that time.

“At my very first ever recital, one of those tunes-the Waltz-is from that, from that far back,” Quentin noted. “That’s how deep it goes. It is the realization of something that goes back that far. One of those tunes, which ironically for us is one of our newest tunes, is the very first thing I ever wrote for this project. Again, pushing twenty-five years ago.”

Hilary adds that there is a search for each other in their personal relationship, in their project, and then in the poetic sense-a search for everyone’s own tribe and where we can be ourselves. The metaphor of “home” is what drives the mentality behind the production. It is interesting to note that while we live in a society that is saturated by technology, and by now, in almost everything we do, that Ponytrap’s music is built upon technological grounds.

“For us the technology angle has a lot to do with somewhat making our life easier,” Quentin said, “but in the same way that that’s kind of a frightening thing.” Quentin remarks sometimes Ponytrap will get a negative response on the fact they are using a robot drummer.

Hilary continues, “Ironically enough, our relationship to technology is in defense of the technology of music, even though the theme of the show is sort of like ‘how do you connect on a human level in this world overrun by technology,’ and really it’s about the application of technology. Is it helping you or is it coming between you?”

One way to find that human connection is through creativity. Actor Charles Peter Keichline will be the voice of that creative spark in this show.

“He is the voice that kind of narrates the struggles and the successes that we have had in trying to make this project work,” Hilary added. “It’s kind of Quentin’s inner voice, as he’s tried to get this project off the ground, voicing his frustrations, and also kind of narrating, again, the metaphor on all those different levels.”

Additionally, Voyager Fest introduced Ponytrap to Laurel Barickman, who is the founder of RECSPEC-a visual arts production company. Hilary and Quentin are thrilled to have such fantastic visual work for this event, as well as the other elements combined. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own percussion, to participate, and hopefully achieve an aesthetic and musical synchronicity with the audience.

The music will start at 6 P.M. The electronic artist, eBurner, will be the opening act: http://www.eburnermusic.com

All ticket information can be found on this event page: https://tickets.austintheatre.org/single/SYOS.aspx?p=933

For more details on the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/903092409739391/ and http://www.ponytrapmusic.com/

Visuals for the event: http://recspec.org/

Photo credit: Katie Cowden Photography