Music's mad scientists

In the laboratory of avant-garde composers, new ideas for all sorts of music are born. The Bonk Festival celebrates this cutting edge chemistry.

By GINA VIVINETTO

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 4, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- Pop music friends: Don't be afraid of the avant-garde. I say this because the Bonk Festival of New Music, now in its 10th year, kicks off today at the Salvador Dali Museum, and I'd hate for you to be too confused or timid to give this experimental music business a shot.

Bonk is a celebration of cutting edge music, most of it electronic, by avant-garde composers. The series, which attracts composers from all over the globe, features a week's worth of shows at venues across the Tampa Bay area.

Yes, you're right. Much of the music sounds weird. And, true, some of the composers dress up in funny outfits, such as Dave Rogers, Bonk festival president, who has been known to don the occasional cow costume before playing his accordion.

But this should not scare lovers of pop music. After all, many of pop's brightest stars secretly dabble in the avant-garde.

Why? Because the avant-garde is all about a rebellious, innovative nature, says David Manson, executive president of the Tampa Bay Composers Forum. Manson is a champion of new music. He directs the Emit series of experimental music and plays trombone in the local jazz band Shim and in Bogus Pomp, a 10-piece band dedicated to the music of the late Frank Zappa.

Zappa, Manson points out, was known as a nutty, long-haired rock 'n' roller, but his true love was classical music, weird stuff written by his idols Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varese.

"Zappa was a very serious composer who got sidetracked into rock 'n' roll," says Manson. Bonk has a lot to offer pop fans, he says: spice and variety to those used to a steady diet of Matchbox Twenty and teen pop.

"Pop music needs to be fueled by challenge and innovation," says Manson, adding that many of today's artists cite avant-garde composers as influences: Tom Waits, who adores the German electronic composer Karlheinz Stockhausen; and Thurston Moore, guitarist of Sonic Youth, long a champion of new music and composers such as Stockhausen and John Cage. Even Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland cites Cage as an influence.

Manson isn't just a cheerleader for Bonk; he's on the bill as well. Manson will perform Velocity, an original piece, complete with computer animation, on Friday at Friday Morning Musicale in Tampa.

Tonight's performance features A Gauzy Red Miasma and Is That a Nuke in Your Silo or Are You Just Glad to See Me?, original works by Eric Lyon, a music professor at Dartmouth College. Lyon is a lover of underground club music and often incorporates techno beats into his compositions.

Pianist Corey Jane Holt will perform Four Pieces for Solo Piano by Claire Laronde. Holt is another "crossover" artist: She has done stints with Tampa's critically acclaimed alt-pop band Clang, as well as the band Bite Size and the all-female act the Great Big New Ones.

Don't mistake Bonk for an academic, highbrow affair, Manson says. The performances are filled with fun and a "postmodern smirky" attitude. And it's not like this sort of music doesn't have a rich history of mayhem. Recall the 1913 Paris debut of Stravinsky's edgy The Rite of Spring? The audience found it so shocking, they tore the seats out of the theater.

A Bonk performance may feature a duet between a cello and lawn mower, performers asking audiences to use toothpicks to pop ballons, even a tongue-in-cheek homage to Liberace.

"It's okay if you don't like something," Manson says. "But you won't yawn or fall asleep, that's for sure."

Bonk Festival of New Music performances

8 p.m. Monday, New College of USF, Sainer Auditorium, 5313 Bayshore Drive, Sarasota; (941) 359-4360.

8 p.m. Tuesday, 10th anniversary celebration, Covivant Gallery, 4906 N Florida Ave., Tampa; (813) 232-1267. Free.

8 p.m. Wednesday, Friday Morning Musicale, 809 Horatio St., Tampa; (813) 251-1990.

8 p.m. Thursday, Friday Morning Musicale, 809 Horatio St., Tampa; (813) 251-1990.

8 p.m. Friday, Friday Morning Musicale, 809 Horatio St., Tampa; (813) 251-1990.

8 p.m. Saturday, Friday Morning Musicale, 809 Horatio St., Tampa; (813) 251-1990.

Admission to each event is $7, $5 for students and seniors. Call the Bonk hotline, (813) 930-8440, or see the Web site, http://www.bonkfest.org.

Preview: Bonk Festival of New Music performance featuring composers Christopher Penrose, Claire Laronde, Jens Hedman and Paulina Sundin, Drew Krause and Eric Lyon. 8 p.m. today, Salvador Dali Museum, 1000 Third St. S, St. Petersburg. (727) 823-3767. Tickets are $7, $5 for students and seniors.

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