Unseen Visions: A New Age Music and Culture Symposium
Films, Lectures, and Performances
Celebrate the pioneers of New Age music and media at this two-day symposium, featuring performances by Robert Rich, Steven Halpern, Kat Epple (Emerald Web), and Larkin, with visuals by Ken Jenkins; screenings of visionary films by Jordan Belson, Jeanette Stobie, and Dorothy Fadiman; and presentations by scholars Erik Davis (TechGnosis, High Weirdness) and Jacob Smith (Bridge to an Unseen Shore: New Age Music as Visionary Art).
Program Overview
Friday 10/9
8:00 PM
Evening Performance
Robert Rich Performance
Saturday 10/10
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Symposium
Conversations with Larkin, Steven Halpern, Kat Epple, and Erik Davis, alongside archival presentations, performance, and screenings.
8:00 PM
Evening Performance + Screenings
Steven Halpern performance with visuals by Ken Jenkins, Kat Epple performance, screenings of films by Jordan Belson, Dorothy Fadiman, and Rowena Pattee Kryder.
Friday, October 9
Legendary electronic musician Robert Rich, who has helped define multiple genres including ambient music, dark ambient, and New Age, brings his unique sound to Gray Area with a concert that ranges across his output from the past twenty years, including new material.
Though younger than the earliest pioneers of New Age music, Rich’s first releases in the 1980s helped open a path for the most adventurous strain of synth-based New Age music, and his career is punctuated by collaborations with other pioneers like Steve Roach, Michael Stearns, and Barry Cleveland. His all-night Sleep Concerts, first performed in 1982, have become legendary, and he has performed them around the world.
Saturday, October 10
The Saturday symposium begins with a tribute to San Francisco radio, which played a major role in the circulation of New Age music. This session will highlight the shows Music from the Hearts of Space and Will Noffke’s New Horizons. Next, Kat Epple will be in conversation, with excerpts from Photonos. After a lunch break, we reconvene with a session on Continuum, the dance and meditation school of Emilie Conrad, which fostered New Age musicians like Michael Stearns, Kevin Braheny Fortune, and Larkin. Larkin will be in conversation and will perform, with visuals by Ken Jenkins. These sessions will be led by Prof. Jacob Smith (Northwestern University), whose new book Bridge to an Unseen Shore is the first in-depth cultural history of New Age music and is based on extensive interviews with musicians and artists in the genre. The afternoon continues with Steven Halpern in conversation and a screening of Jeanette Stobie’s Lightstream. The final presentation of the day is by renowned author Erik Davis (TechGnosis, High Weirdness) and Megan Phipps.
• 10:00 – 10:15 AM | Welcome and Introduction — Jacob Smith
• 10:15 – 11:00 AM | Tribute to SF New Age Radio: Hearts of Space and New Horizons
• 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Kat Epple in Conversation, excerpts from Photonos
• 12:00 – 1:00 PM | LUNCH BREAK
• 1:00 – 2:30 PM | Continuum: Conversation and Performance by Larkin, visuals by Ken Jenkins
• 2:30 – 3:30 PM | Steven Halpern in Conversation
• 3:30 – 4:00 PM | Screening: Lightstream (Jeanette Stobie)
• 4:00 – 5:00 PM | Erik Davis and Megan Phipps
In the evening, Steven Halpern, one of the founders of the genre, will perform on the Fender Rhodes keyboard, with visuals by Ken Jenkins, followed by a performance by Kat Epple. The evening concludes with screenings of films by visionary filmmakers Jordan Belson, Dorothy Fadiman, and Rowena Pattee Kryder.
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