The Spark Festival is underway

The Spark Festival, the U of M's celebration and exploration of the history, future, and current culture of electronic art, plays host to electronic composer and synthesizer designer Morton Subotnick tonight at the Whole Music Club. He will be joined by local musician J.G. Everest for another installment of Everest's regular "Making Music" interview series. Subotnick is famous for co-inventing the Buchla Synthesizer, pre-dating the more-famous Moog by a year. He later used the Buchla to compose one of the world's first commissioned electronic compositions, The Silver Apples of the Moon, in 1968 (the same year as Wendy Carlos's seminal Switched-On Bach).

The festival continues through the weekend, with tons of lectures, concerts, and art installations scattered throughout the city. Featured events also include a performance by Warp Records artist Richard Devine (remixer of Aphex Twin and Mike Patton), a "Headphone Festival," circuit-bending workshops by locals Beatrix*Jar, and several other appearances and performances by Subotnick. Check out the Spark website for full details.