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Not that it really matters: there are more than a few notable musical events taking place during the fest, which begins at midnight on Wednesday, October 25, and (theoretically) runs until 11:59 PM. Among the highlights is a rare local performance by composer Pauline Oliveros, a pioneer of drone music of incredibly high caliber and sophistication. She plays an accordion retuned in just intonation, a system based on the ratios of natural harmonics. She’s frequently given performances and made recordings inside deeply reverberant spaces, such as the 14-foot-deep water cistern she used for her classic piece Deep Listening. Here she will collaborate with Tintinnabulate — an improvising ensemble that Oliveros started at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2005 — and the Weave Soundpainting Orchestra, a multidisciplinary performance troupe founded by composer Sarah Weaver and described this way on its Web site: “Soundpainting is the live composing sign language created by New York composer Walter Thompson for musicians, dancers, actors, poets, and visual artists working in the medium of structured improvisation. At present the language comprises over 750 gestures that are signed by the Soundpainter indicating the type of improvisation desired of the performers. Direction of the composition is gained through the parameters of each set of signed gestures.” The concert is at the Empty Bottle at 7 PM.
