AROUND TOWN: Ground Hum February 2023
This blog post series explores the context of events, organizers, collectives, and artists involved in the electronic music community of Seattle and the surrounding region.
Through working in the showroom at Patchwerks, I’ve met many artists who double as label heads and members of collectives and go above and beyond to provide curated spaces for the community to share and listen to music. As a performer and organizer myself, I’m continually awe-struck by how much passion fuels the electronic music community in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
This blog series exists to delve deeper into the motivations, inspiration, and background of events and the people involved. As a kick-off to this series I’m thrilled to share this conversation I had with two of the organizers of Ground Hum, which I’ll be performing at under my stage name enereph this coming Saturday, February 25th.
-Connie Fu (AKA enereph)
Ground Hum
Ground Hum is a winter celebration of experimental art and music happening this Saturday, February 25th, from 2 to 11 PM in an immersive art space in Ballard.
Featured performing artists include Strategy, Lori Goldston, Patricia Wolf, enereph, IVVY & Pascal, Selene, ‘nohup’, tondiue, and Hans. The Ground Hum organizers are Simone Pierson, Gia Valente, Phil Kampf, Alex Markey, Kayla Waldorf, Cameron Kelley, Max Washburn, Bobby Azarbayejani, Madi Levine, and Hans Anderson. Tickets are available at groundhum.net.
As a kick-off to this series I’m thrilled to share this conversation I had with two of the organizers of Ground Hum, which I’ll be performing at under my stage name enereph this coming Saturday, February 25th.
Connie: Hey, everyone. It's Connie from Patchwerks, and I'm here with Cameron and Bobby, two of the organizers from Ground Hum. Could you tell us a little bit about yourselves and also what is one of your favorite synths?
Bobby: Hey, I'm Bobby. I am the founder of illegal afters tracks, a label for dance music mostly, but I'm really excited about Ground Hum, excited to share some more ambient experimental music and listen to it and get into it. So really happy to be here. I'd say my favorite piece of hardware is probably just my Ableton Push. I just do everything in the box. It’s really cool to be at Patchwerks and be around all this cool gear, but I'm mostly on my laptop.
Cameron: Hi, my name is Cameron. Thanks for having us. Yeah, I run the record label Apt E. It's a party series as well. And we are coming together to have, like Bobby said, a more deep listening experimental music event, which is Ground Hum. And one of my favorite pieces of gear, I would say, is the Casio CZ 5000, 1985, digital synth. It's a pain to program, but it gets some nice, crispy tones.
Connie: And one of my favorite pieces of gear is the Elektron Octatrack. Okay, so could you tell us a little bit more about the event? What's the history and who's involved and what inspired you to put it on?
Bobby: We were definitely really inspired by a previous event called Corridor that happened in Seattle from, I think, 2016 to 2018. I was really happy to play at one of them and also do an installation at both. It was a really multifaceted event, and we're really trying to emulate that, I think. We're bringing in dance, bringing in performers from all kinds of different scenes and genres, and trying to also incorporate installation art and food also into the event. So we think it will be a type of place where people want to stay and explore and really just immerse themselves in sound.
Cameron: Yeah, we're really aiming for Ground Hum to be a welcoming and immersive experience. And that's why we do it in the wintertime, as Corridor was also in the winter, because on these cold Seattle winter days I think we all could use the space to warm up, drink some tea, and listen to some deep music.
Connie: Awesome. Thank you so much. So if I'm going to Ground Hum on Saturday, you already described it a little bit, but, should I come by myself? Should I come with some friends? What mindset should I come in? And what are you hoping that people will take away?
Bobby: Well, definitely bring as many people as possible. But I think really whatever would make you most comfortable in immersing yourself in a, personally, what I think is a beautiful space and also around beautiful music.
Cameron: Yeah, I would say come with an open mind. We're very proud to have the lineup that we do. It spans a wide range of genres from electronic music to a solo acoustic cello performance from Lori Goldston. Experimental music and ambient music can often be a little stuffy and a little bit one-note. And I think for what we're doing here, we're trying to really move away from that and create something that is just pleasant and can still be very fun and just a fully experiential immersive environment for everyone.
Connie: Sounds beautiful. Thank you so much for putting all of your work into this and can't wait to see what goes on.
Patchwerks is excited to be a part of our vibrant local community. Stay tuned to hear about more upcoming events and happenings around town!
We'll see you Saturday, February 25th, from 2 to 11 PM in Ballard for an immersive art experience at Ground Hum!
