ORBITAL & THE CANNABINOIDS feat. ERYKAH BADU TO HEADLINE THE 2012 DECIBEL FESTIVAL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

ORBITAL and; THE CANNABINOIDS feat. ERYKAH BADU TO HEADLINE THE 2012 DECIBEL FESTIVAL: SEPTEMBER 27TH AND 28TH AT THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

Orbital, The Cannabinoids featuring Erykah Badu, and Shpongle have been added to the line-up for the 9th annual Decibel International Festival of Electronic Music Performance, Visual Art and New Media. This rounds out an amazing list of headliners including Kimbra, Carl Craig, Matthew Dear, Fennesz, John Talabot, Ariel Pink, Actress, Nina Kraviz, and Baths.

Other new additions include Balam Acab, MartyParty, Teengirl Fantasy, Shlohmo, Starkey, The Knocks, k. flay, Axel Boman, Appleblim, xxxy, Salva, Baauer, The Stepkids, and Orcas.

Visit The Decibel Festival website for the complete lineup, to purchase tickets, and more details. Decibel takes place September 26-30th at various Seattle venues.

NOTE FROM THE DECIBEL FESTIVAL CURATOR, SEAN HORTON

As I reflect on the 2012 Decibel Festival line-up, it is clear to me that our creative scope is continuing to expand along with our audience. This being our ninth program, I must also look ahead towards our monumental 10th edition in 2013, and what that could mean for us as an organization. One thing is for certain, I've never been more excited to unveil what I believe to be our most adventurous and complete line-up to date. Before I do so, I'd like to highlight a couple key cultural developments that have brought us to where we are today.

In recent years, electronic dance music or “EDM” has been riding a wave of success unlike any we've ever seen in North America. Though Decibel has benefited from and even played a role in this growth over the years, the majority of our audience were supporting electronic music long before it reached the mainstream. In fact, it was the lack of acceptance that provided impetus for me to found Decibel in 2003. Putting together this year's line-up, I made a conscious effort to avoid jumping on the bandwagon and instead focus on a diverse selection of artists that I feel have a unique and influential voice that spreads will beyond the current hype. This was a calculated decision on my part and one that I feel will lead to lasting relationships with both our audience and the artists we support.

Another trend I was conscious of this year was that excessively loud, over-produced sound design. In many ways this trend has bridged the gap between teen-angst and music technology. Though I find it to be a fascinating cultural development, creatively I simply can't relate to the music and experience as I once did. What has been resonating with me is the evolution of soul, hip hop, pop, disco and world music via contemporary electronic music. The beauty and raw emotion conveyed in so much of the music I've discovered over the past year signals a change, much of which I attribute to women playing a more active role as electronic music producers, deejays, performers and fans. As I mentioned in my previous correspondence, this is our most diverse line-up both in terms of the amount of countries represented and the amount of female performers (22 countries and more than 20% feature female performers).

Though we still have much more to announce (e.g. complete program, schedule, dB Conference, after parties, boat parties, updated partners and dB films to be announced on July 25th) the creative direction of this year's festival should be abundantly clear based on the line-up presented here. I encourage you all once again to explore our new website and actively participate in social media exchanges over the next three months. September will be here before you know it!

Until next time,

Sean Patrick Horton

Decibel Festival Founder and Curator

Orbital

The first electronic dance music CD I purchased was Orbital's "2" back in 1993. Unlike the industrial music I was listening to at the time, what struck me immediately with Orbital was there were no vocals. The emphasis was entirely on the sound design and composition, which were unlike anything I had ever heard prior. Orbital has always held a special place in my heart both as producers and performers. They were one of the first purely electronic live acts to headline major festivals and tours globally, which pushed the idea of live electronic music performance into the forefront of early rave culture. As Decibel curator, I have taken the stance that live electronic music performance is crucial to the Decibel brand and no performance duo in history is more relevant to me personally than Orbital. It's worth noting that 2012 celebrates the 20th anniversary of my discovery of Orbital and it is with great pleasure that I announce they will be one of the headliners for the 2012 Decibel Festival.

The Cannabinoids feat. Erykah Badu

Neo Soul is a term that has been thrown around since the early 90s. It was used to describe a shift away from the often corny, commercial world of Top 40 R&B and gave dozens of disenchanted songwriters and performers a chance to pay homage the music they grew up listening to. The subject matter was honest and heartfelt and the music possessed an organic quality that was rare in contemporary urban music at the time. Jump ahead 20 years and Neo Soul artists like Adele and John Legend have brought back traditional soul music to young and old alike. However, there's no other artist in Neo Soul that has had more influence and longevity than Erykah Badu. Not only did she take her cues from some of hip hop's most important figures, she broke the mold with what it meant to be female African American artist in the United States. Known as The Queen of Neo Soul, she made her own rules, created her own fashion, spoke her mind politically and did so with complete confidence. Constantly re-inventing herself, Erykah has now embraced a technologically-driven musical collective that can only be described as "the sensational reaction created when the synthetic combines with the organic". Her work with The Cannabinoids marks the next phase of her development both as a composer and performer. Consisting of 9 laptops, 3 turntables, 6 keyboards, 4 drum machines, a Theremin, live projections and over a dozen performers, The Cannabinoids are quite simply the ambitious performance we've ever hosted at The Decibel Festival. Like Parliament-Funkadelic for the digital age, The Cannabinoids have given Erykah Badu a new digital platform on which to transform her classic Neo Soul material into a full audio/visual experience.

Orbital will be performing Thursday September 27th at the Paramount Theatre. The Cannabioids feat. Erykah Badu will be performing Friday September 28th at the Paramount Theatre. Tickets for both events go on sale Friday, July 13th at 11AM PST. For more information on these and other 2012 Decibel Festival events, stay tuned to dBFestival.com, Facebook.com/DecibelFestival and Twitter.com/dBFestival (full program coming July 25th).

Below new Artists added in bold:

Orbital UK

The Cannabinoids feat. Erykah Badu US

Kimbra NZ/AU
Carl Craig 69 Live US

Shpongle UK
Fennesz + Jon Wozencroft AT/UK
John Talabot ES
Ariel Pink US
Matthew Dear US
Nina Kraviz RU
Actress UK

Monolake + Tarik Barri DE/NL
Baths US
Dixon DE
Dragonette CA

Robag Wruhme DE
MartyParty US
Byetone DE
Oxia FR
Starkey US
Emancipator US
Max Cooper UK
Balam Acab US
Roman Flugel DE
Yppah US
Matt Tolfrey UK
Julianna Barwick US
Axel Boman SE
Teengirl Fantasy US
Appleblim UK
Kangding Ray DE
Demdike Stare UK
Kuedo UK
Ripperton CH
The Knocks US

Biosphere NO
k.flay US
Octave One US
xxxy UK
Houses US

Shlohmo US
Deetron CH
Orcas US
bvdub US/CN
Nils Frahm DE
Paul Chambers UK
Christina Vantzou BE
DVS1 US
Robert Henke DE
Windy and Carl US
MANIK US

Sylvain Chauveau FR
Cut Hands US
dalot US

Salva US
Baauer US
Devonwho US
Kids & Explosions CA
Lusine US
Scott Pagano US
Dave Aju US
lissom US
longwalkshortdock CA
Loscil CA

Dabrye US
EmptySet UK
Maria Minerva EE
The Stepkids US
CFCF CA
Pezzner US
Lulacruza AR / CO
Houses US
MLZ UKAnenon US
port-royal IT
Terrence Parker US
Anomie Belle US
The Sight Below US
Basic Soul Unit CA
The Great Mundane US
Kiesuke Shingu US
Norman Chung SG
Adam Hummell CA
Natasha Kmeto US
Cyanwave US

Katie Kate US
Gulls US
Brandy Gray US
TracerVisuals US
DJAO US
Zachariah Walker UK
BODYGUARD US
Scott Sunn US
T.J. Davis US
A-Rock CA
Leo Mayberry US
+ MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED

About Decibel

In year nine, The Decibel International Festival of Electronic Music Performance, Visual Art and New Media is quickly becoming the SXSW of the swelling cultural phenomena that is electronic music. The Seattle based festival expects to hit 30k attendees this year with over 170 artists from 19 different countries, plus 72 educational speakers, making Decibel Festival an oracle for the growth of the entire international electronic music scene. The entire festival takes place over a five day period at over 14 venues in Seattle, Washington.

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Melissa Wynne-Jones

THE CONFLUENCE

www.TheConfluenceGroup.com