Saturday Night Performance : Panorama : Jeffrey Kunzelman

On Friday, September 12, and Saturday, September 13, Arcosanti is proud to host Different Skies 2003, a gathering of electronic, experimental and space music artists from around the United States and Europe. This festival is utterly unique in its devotion not only to the music these artists create as part of their own repertoire, but to music written by the artists at Arcosanti as part of a week-long series of workshops and rehearsals culminating in the public performances of Friday and Saturday.

Space music fans, listeners to well-known radio programs like “Music from the Hearts of Space” and “Echoes,” frequently wonder what would happen if a number of their favorite artists, most of whom tend to compose and create music in relative isolation, were to get together and create entirely new music from the experience of meeting and interacting with other space musicians. For the first time ever, a music festival has been designed to do exactly that, with Arcosanti and its incredible natural surroundings serving as host for the music of the future.

The artist lineup for Different Skies 2003 includes world-famous space music acts like Dweller At The Threshold, Tony Gerber, Giles Reaves, Ma Ja Le, CASSIEL, Tim Walters and Mike Metlay, as well as a number of rising stars in the electronic music firmament. The artists will live and work together at Arcosanti for four days before presenting their concerts to the public. Concerts will be divided between the Vaults and the amphitheatre of the Colly Soleri Music Center, the latter with live interactive computer visuals provided by video artist David Tristram of Tristram Visual.

Friday will see two distinct concerts at 2 PM and 7:30 PM, with the artists of Different Skies divided between the two concerts and performing overlapping sets of their own material, altered to flow smoothly from artist to artist. Dinner will be available at the Cafe at Arcosanti for concertgoers wishing to stay for both shows. Tickets for Friday’s concerts are $15 each or $25 for both; advance ticket purchases are highly recommended.

Saturday, the Colly Soleri Music Center will host a special concert of entirely new music written by the artists at Arcosanti and performed for the first time ever in front of a live audience. The concert, at 7:30 PM, will be preceded by a tour of Arcosanti at 5 PM and a gourmet dinner at 6 PM, served in Arcosanti’s magnificent Vaults, where the concert is scheduled to begin at the close of the meal, the audience moving at intermission to the Colly Soleri Amphitheatre.

Tickets are $15 for the concert, $30 for the concert, tour, and dinner. Dinner reservations are required, and can be made by calling 928-632-6217 or emailing info@arcosanti.org. Arcosanti is located 2 miles northeast of Cordes Junction (exit 262) off I-17, about 60 miles north of Phoenix.

For more information on this extraordinary event, or to purchase tickets online, please go to www.differentskies.com.

www.arcosanti.org