Since 2016, downtown Oakland gallery Pro Arts has become a staple venue for experimental electronic music and multimedia performance through its Hybrid series. Organizer Michael Daddona, who runs Ratskin Records, is well connected to local and touring artists operating in the murky intersections of noise and video, techno and performance art. But with fewer underground venues to host such gigs in Oakland, he’s found a fitting alternative at Pro Arts.
Stasis: A Festival of Sound, Performance, Video & Art, occurring this weekend at the nonprofit gallery, is at once a benefit for Hybrid and a celebration of the scenes it lifts up and serves. With nearly 40 musical or multimedia acts (many familiar from the Ratskin roster), along with film and video screenings and a visual art market, Stasis opens a wide window onto the margins of experimental electronic music in Oakland.
Sunday, after a daytime art market, promises the record-release event for Spellling’s stirring debut full-length Pantheon of Me, which Ratskin is reissuing on vinyl and cassette following its initial self-release last year. It comes ahead of a potential breakout moment for Berkeley songwriter Tia Cabral, whose follow-up album as Spellling is due February on high-profile New York indie Sacred Bones Records. Main support, meanwhile, is avant-pop artist Tyler Holmes.
Friday and Saturday performers include synthesizer-oriented soloists Beast Nest and Lance Hill, multimedia performance vehicles Wizard Apprentice and Lexagon, noise projects Head Boggle and Bran (…) Pos, and underground fixtures Burmese and Las Sucias. Tickets are $9 a day, or $25 for a three-day pass. Find the full lineup here.
