High Desert Soundings was founded by cellist TJ Borden and composer Daniel Meyer-O'Keeffe in 2017. It began as a two-day outdoor music festival near Joshua Tree National Park in the California High-Desert. The festival is held at the Palms Restaurant in Wonder Valley, a homesteading frontier community sprawled across 180 square miles. The Palms is the only restaurant in Wonder Valley and the primary meeting place for the diverse group of artists, free spirits and isolationists who make up the valley's tiny population. Wonder Valley's natural beauty and remarkable quiet set the stage for unique and immersive performances.
We are dedicated to presenting performances by musicians and sound artists from across the spectrum of experimental sound practices. Featured artists draw from styles including but not limited to new and contemporary concert music, free jazz and improvisation, noise, drone and outsider pop music. We believe that by relocating these diverse musical practices outside of their sometimes restrictive social environments we can help foster a more dynamic and inclusive experimental music community. We have featured performances from Wolf Eyes, Sarah Hennies, Michael Pisaro, Vinny Golia, Audrey Chen and Phil Minton, Palberta, Jeph Jerman, Jack Wright, Carolyn Chen and many more.
Recently, in addition to our yearly festival in the High Desert, we have begun to curate concerts in Los Angeles. These concerts offer us the opportunity to further connect with the thriving LA experimental music scene and engage with it on a broader level. All money we make on ticket sales is paid out to the artist, with our only profit coming from the sale of merchandise.
Currently, we are looking towards are next festival, happening October 2nd and 3rd, 2020. We have confirmed almost our entire line-up, which includes Fred Frith, James Rushford and Tashi Wada (duo), Bill Orcutt, Rage Thormbones performing Sarah Davachi, Laura Steenberge and Jeph Jerman (duo), and Wilfrido Terrazas.
