The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts presents the third annual Experiments in Electronic Sound (EESF) festival from Thursday, Sept. 25, through Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Roy O. Disney Concert Hall. Over three days, the festival features performances by 25 artists working at the forefront of experimental and electronic sound practices.
For the 2025 edition, EESF continues CalArts’ longstanding tradition of pushing the boundaries of how music and sound are created, performed, and experienced. The festival serves as a platform for musicians and artists whose work moves fluidly between composition, improvisation, and sound art.
The festival is directed by Clay Chaplin, director of Computer Music & Experimental Media Studios, and Volker Straebel, dean of The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts.
The three-day event is free and open to both the CalArts community and the broader Los Angeles music audience looking to engage with new and boundary-breaking work.
See the full festival lineup below:
Concert 1
Thursday, Sept. 25, 8 pm
- “Headspace Composition,” Davy Sumner (Music MFA 16)
- “a god from a machine,” JC Scheid (Music MFA 15)
- “Improvisation on electric harp and tape loops,” Elif Dincer (Music MFA 23)
- “Le Pont,” Christine Webster
- “Hen of the Woods: Music in the Year 2025 for Sampler and Guitar Pedals,” Clementine Wink
- “Gravity Cycles,” Joe Cantrell (Music BFA 09) & Haydeé Jiménez
- “Spang-a-lang,” Cooper Baker (Music BFA 04, MFA 06)
Concert 2
Friday, Sept. 26, 8 pm
- “dogbone//lightswallowsall,” bes (Music MFA 24)
- “Murmurations of the Krell,” Mike Olson
- “Touch Improv,” Huichun Yang
- “Impossible Sky,” Matt LeVeque (Music DMA 24); CalArts faculty
- “Motorized Contact,” Miser
- “Frammenti No. 3 (Live Version),” Daniel Warner
- “Improvisation,” Dylan Marx (Music MFA 21) + Zaq Kenefick (Music MFA 21)
Concert 3
Saturday, Sept. 27, 8 pm
- “Mill Creek,” Jen Boyd (Music BFA 04)
- “Bleed 1,” Fabric Dissolver
- “I Quit Basketball and Joined Jazz Band,” Macrosomic
- “Improvisation,” Heather Lockie (Music MFA 12)
- “Videoscape I,” Kittiphan Janbuala
- “Fake Radiolab Live,” Adam Mirza and Akiva Zamcheck
- “Improvisation with Voice,” John Fireman
