The Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year we invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.
Gannon is Aj Pyatak, a man gone mad with the idea that being a musician is a "valid" career path. Aj has always had music and technology in his life, but only discovered circuit bending in February of '09. Realizing he had a knack for bending he was sent into a frenzy of instrument construction, ultimately using them to record his latest album of music "Toy Volcano". This album is a combination of handcrafted electronic instruments, ukulele, and pop music magique. All of Aj's work pours directly out of his heart and he appreciates all the support he's received over the years. He believes in creativity, and the idea that all it takes is a little hard work.
BentFest 2010 will be the first public performance of the Toy Volcano instruments. The performance will be a mix of bent improvisation, and video multitracked songs with live ukulele accompaniment. Prepare to have your face melted!!!
This wild experimental artist from Chicago uses electric kazoos, tape loops, and more to craft far-out, wonderfully confounding songs. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 15, 2021
A brave experimental record from the Cecilia Lopez & Ingrid Laubrock running darting sax lines through dense electronics & processing. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 10, 2023
Described as a series of “self-exorcisms,” “Ego De Espinhos” is a brain-melting foray into experimental electronics. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 4, 2019
Persuasion’s “Quartermass” EP is a collection of dark, dubby techno, with an emphasis on deep rhythms and ghostly tones. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 8, 2018