Decibel Festival is an annual music and digital arts festival started in 2003 in Seattle by Sean Horton. Decibel is dedicated to live electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 performance, visual art and new media. The core of the festival comprises concerts, performances, commissioned work, film screenings and exhibitions. The programing is presented in a variety of locations throughout Seattle, centered around the Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington

Capitol Hill is the most densely populated residential district in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the center of the city's gay and counterculture communities, and is one of the city's most prominent nightlife and entertainment districts....

 neighborhood and Downtown

Downtown Seattle

Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared to other city centers on the West Coast because of its geographical situation: hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by the Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once...

. In addition to these performance programs, Decibel also includes a professional section featuring panels, lectures and workshops. These serve as a meeting ground for leading-edge artists, labels and music gear manufacturers.

In fall 2011, Decibel celebrated its largest edition to date, pulling in over 23,000 attendees. The 2011 edition sold both record numbers of festival passes (up 18% from 2010) and individual showcase tickets (up 45% from 2010).

Since its inception, Decibel has hosted over 750 acts ranging from underground dance and experimental electronic music to transmedial art. Past highlights include: Amon Tobin ISAM LIVE, Moby

Moby

Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...

, Autechre

Autechre

Autechre are an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both natives of Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are one of the most prominent acts signed to Warp Records, a label known for its pioneering electronic music and through which all Autechre albums...

, Deadmaus, Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus, is an experimental multi-genre music producer from Winnetka, California. His debut album, 1983, was released on Plug Research Records in 2006...

, Justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

, Richie Hawtin

Richie Hawtin

Richard Hawtin is an English-Canadian electronic musician and DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s and a leading exponent of Minimal techno since the mid 1990s...

, Trentemoller, Diplo, Geographer

Geographer (Band)

Geographer are an American Indie Rock band based in San Francisco, California. The band formed in 2008 and consists of Michael Deni , Nathan Blaz and Brian Ostreicher ....

, Boys Noize

Boys Noize

Boys Noize is the stage name of Alexander Ridha, a German electronic music producer and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he established in 2005...

, Green Velvet, Modeselektor

Modeselektor

Modeselektor is an electronic music band formed in Berlin, featuring Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. The group draws heavily from IDM, glitch, Electro house and hip hop. In an interview the group said regarding their sound: "Happy metal, hard rap, country-ambient, Russian crunk. We don’t like...

, Gui Boratto

Gui Boratto

Gui Boratto is a Brazilian electronic music producer. In the 1990s he was a member of Sect.His album Chromophobia was awarded the title of Mixmag Album of the Month. Regarding why he chose the name Chromophobia, Boratto said: "The same meaning as monochromatism in architecture, which means...

, Carl Craig

Carl Craig

Carl Craig is a Detroit-based producer of techno music, and is considered to be one of the most important names in the Detroit second generation of techno producers and DJs...

, Simian Mobile Disco

Simian Mobile Disco

Simian Mobile Disco are a United Kingdom-based production and remix team formed in 2005 by James Ford and Jas Shaw of the band Simian. Musically, they are known for their analogue production...

, Ladytron

Ladytron

Ladytron are an English electronic band formed in 1999 in Liverpool, Merseyside. The group consists of Helen Marnie , Mira Aroyo , Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu .Their sound blends electropop with New Wave and shoegazing elements. Ladytron described their sound as "electronic pop"...

, Robin Guthrie

Robin Guthrie

Robin Guthrie is a musician best known as co-founder of the Cocteau Twins. During his career Guthrie has played guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and other musical instruments, in addition to programming, sampling and sound processing...

, DJ Krush

DJ Krush

, better known as DJ Krush, is a producer and DJ. He is known for his atmospheric instrumental production which incorporates sound elements from nature and extensive use of jazz and soul samples.-Biography:...

, Four Tet

Four Tet

Kieran Hebden is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist under the moniker of Four Tet....

, James Blake

James Blake

James Riley Blake is an American professional tennis player. Blake is known for his speed and powerful, flat forehand. As of August 2011, Blake is ranked no. 63 among active male players with 24 career finals appearances...

, Bonobo

Bonobo

The bonobo , Pan paniscus, previously called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan. The other species in genus Pan is Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee...

, fennesz, Apparat

Apparat (musician)

Apparat is a German electronic musician living in Berlin and was previously a co-owner of Shitkatapult records. Starting out with dance floor-oriented techno, he later started to create ambient music and more recently became "more interested in designing sounds than beats".In 2004, he appeared at...

, The Field

The Field

The Field is a play written by John B. Keane, first performed in 1965. It tells the story of the hardened farmer "Bull" McCabe and his love for the land he rents. The play debuted at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in 1965, with Ray McAnally as "The Bull" and Eamon Keane as "The Bird" O'Donnell. The play...

, Isolee

Isolée

Isolée is microhouse artist Rajko Müller. Isolée is a minimalist house producer whose music is reminisent of indie electronic pop music of the early eighties and ambient techno from a decade on. Isolée is credited with creating the very first microhouse record to reach the club charts...

, Moderat

Moderat

Moderat is an electronic music project that originated in Berlin, Germany. It started as a collaboration between Sascha Ring, also known as Apparat, and Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, also known as Modeselektor...

, Meat Beat Manifesto

Meat Beat Manifesto

Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened to Meat Beat or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens formed in 1987 in Swindon, UK...

, Switch

Switch

In electronics, a switch is an electrical component that can break an electrical circuit, interrupting the current or diverting it from one conductor to another....

, Monolake

Monolake

Monolake is an electronic music act based in Berlin. Originally consisting of members Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke, Monolake is now perpetuated by Henke while Behles focuses on running music software company Ableton, which they founded in 1999 together with Bernd Roggendorf...

, Scuba

Scuba

Scuba is an acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. It may also refer to:* Scuba diving, the use of a self-contained breathing set to stay underwater for periods of time* Scuba set, the equipment used to do scuba diving...

, Star Slinger

Star Slinger

Star Slinger is a hip hop producer based in Manchester, UK taking influences from soul to shoegaze. He first came to the attention after self-releasing a beat tape via the internet in the summer of 2010 entitled "Volume 1". Williams was later asked by Broken Social Scene drummer Justin Peroff to...

, Derrick May, Mt Eden, Biosphere

Biosphere

The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...

, Gold Panda

Gold Panda

Gold Panda is a musical composer, performer and producer from the United Kingdom.He was born in Peckham, London, in 1980 and hails from Chelmsford, Essex. He lived in Japan and studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London...

, Cobblestone Jazz, John Tejada

John Tejada

Normally associated with his peers in techno from Detroit, Europe and elsewhere, John Tejada has embraced electronic music as a personal frontier, expanding on his resume as a techno recording artist as producer, remixer, DJ, and label owner...

, Speedy J

Speedy J

Speedy J , is a Dutch electronic music producer based in the city of Rotterdam. His breakthrough came with the release in 1992 of the minimal techno track Pullover...

, Michael Mayer

Michael Mayer (musician)

Michael Mayer is one of the key figures of Cologne, Germany's electronic music scene. Mayer is a remixer, DJ, and producer, and has released a small handful of his own singles on the Kompakt music label that he helps run with founder Wolfgang Voigt...

, Daedelus, Bruno Pronsato, Stars of the Lid

Stars of the Lid

Stars of the Lid is a duo specializing in drone-based ambient music. They list among their influences minimalist and electronic composers such as Arvo Pärt, Zbigniew Preisner, Gavin Bryars, and Henryk Górecki, as well as Talk Talk , post-rock artists Labradford, and ambient innovator Brian...

, Baths, Alexi Delano, Starkey

Starkey

Starkey may refer to:* Starkey, New York, a US town* Starkey Township, Logan County, North Dakota, United States* Starkey International Institute for Household Management, a school for butlers, in Denver, Colorado, US...

, Matthew Dear

Matthew Dear

Matthew Dear is an American music producer, DJ and electronic avant-pop artist.-History:Texas- born Dear moved to Michigan as a teenager, where he was inspired by the sound of Detroit Techno...

, Tokimosta, Kevin Saunderson

Kevin Saunderson

Kevin Saunderson is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins...

, AraabMUZIK

AraabMUZIK

Abraham Orellana, better known as "araabMuzik" is an American hip hop record producer of Dominican and Guatemalan descent. From Providence, Rhode Island, he first rose to fame after showcasing his skills of making live beats and instrumentals on a MPC drum machine on the internet...

, Nortec Collective

Nortec Collective

Nortec Collective is a musical ensemble formed by various individual one or two man production projects. The group came together in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Their sound genre mixes electronica with musical elements and instrumentation of Tambora and Norteño music, resulting in the nortec ...

, Tycho

Tycho

Tycho may refer to:* Tycho Brahe , Danish nobleman and astronomer* Tycho van Meer , Dutch field hockey striker* Tommy Tycho , Hungarian-Australian pianist, conductor, composerIn astronomy:...

, Murcof

Murcof

Murcof is the performing and recording name of Mexican electronica artist Fernando Corona.Corona was born in 1970 in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in Ensenada. He was for a time a member of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective of electronic musicians under the Terrestre project name...

, Joker, Glitch Mob, Ramadanman, The Wighnomy Brothers, Breakage, Martin Buttrich, Mary Anne Hobbs

Mary Anne Hobbs

Mary Anne Hobbs is an English DJ and music journalist from Garstang, Lancashire. She launched a new Primetime show on Xfm on 9 July 2011-Early career:...

, Thomas Fehlmann

Thomas Fehlmann

Thomas Fehlmann , is a Swiss-born composer/producer who currently lives in Berlin, and has been active in electronic music as far back as the 1980s. He is currently active on the Kompakt record label based in Germany...

, Robert Hood

Robert Hood

Robert Hood is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister Of Information' with Mad Mike Banks & Jeff Mills. He is often considered to be one of the founders of minimal techno....

, Wolf + Lamb, Caspa

Caspa

Caspa is the stage name of Gary McCann, a Dubstep music producer from West London.-Biography:McCann's creative involvement in music began after a promising basketball career was cut short by a shoulder injury...

, Mad Professor

Mad Professor

Mad Professor is a dub music producer and engineer known for his original productions and remix work. He is considered one of the leading producers of dub music’s second generation and was instrumental in transitioning dub into the digital age. He is a prolific producer, contributing to or...

, Theo Parrish

Theo Parrish

Theo Parrish is a techno/house musician based in Detroit, Michigan. He was born in Washington, DC. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois listening to jazz musicians like Miles Davis, Nina Simone, and George Gershwin. He graduated from the Chicago Academy of the Arts and went to study at the Kansas City...

, Zomby

Zomby

Zomby is a dubstep producer who began releasing music in 2007. He has released music on the likes of Hyperdub and Werk Discs. In 2008, he released a full length album, Where Were U in '92?, inspired by the rave scene of the early 1990s...

, Ellen Allien

Ellen Allien

Ellen Allien, born Ellen Fraatz , is a German electronic musician, music producer and founder of BPitch Control music label. She lives in Berlin, Germany. She sings in both German and English. She has said that one of the main inspirations for her music is the culture of reunified Berlin; her...

, Mount Kimbie

Mount Kimbie

Mount Kimbie is a British electronic duo that formed in London, England in 2008. The duo consists of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos. Unlike many other mainstream dubstep artists, their style revolves around guitars, sampling, loops and ambient soundscapes....

, Atom™, Ben Frost

Ben Frost

Ben Frost may refer to:* Ben Frost , Australian-born composer* Ben Frost , Australian-born performance and visual artist...

, Gaslamp Killer, Addison Groove, Dan Bell, Alter Ego, 12th Planet, Soul Clap

Soul Clap

Soul Clap is the debut EP from underground Hip Hop duo Showbiz & A.G.. The album featured later Runaway Slave album cuts, "Party Groove", "Soul Clap" and "Catchin' Wreck", as well as the exclusive songs "Diggin' In The Crates" and "Giant In The Mental".-Track listing:...

, Mala, Tiger & Woods, dOP, School of Seven Bells

School of Seven Bells

School of Seven Bells is a band formed by Benjamin Curtis of Secret Machines, together with identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, formerly of On!Air!Library!. The band is named after the School of the Seven Bells, a mythical South American pickpocket training academy.-History:Curtis and...

, 3 Channels, Tim Hecker

Tim Hecker

Tim Hecker is an electronic musician and sound artist based in Montreal, Canada. Hecker previously recorded under the moniker Jetone, but has become better known internationally for his ambient recordings released through Kranky, Mille Plateaux, Alien8, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat under his...

, Claude VonStroke

Claude VonStroke

Claude VonStroke is an American house and techno producer based in San Francisco. He owns the Dirtybird and Mothership labels. In July 2006 he released his debut album, Beware of the Bird, which received excellent reviews. He has produced a 'Fabric' mix, which was released in May 2009, and has also...

, Funkstörung

Funkstörung

Funkstörung is Christian de Luca and Michael Fakesch , a duo of IDM musicians hailing from Rosenheim, Germany...

, Eluvium

Eluvium

Eluvium is the moniker of ambient recording artist Matthew Cooper, who currently resides in Portland, Oregon. Cooper, who was born in Tennessee and raised in Louisville, Kentucky before relocating to the Northwest, is known for blending various genres of experimental music including shoegaze,...

, Mountains, Telefon Tel Aviv

Telefon Tel Aviv

Telefon Tel Aviv is a Chicago, Illinois-based American electronic music act. Formerly comprising Charles Cooper and Joshua Eustis, Telefon Tel Aviv continues with Eustis as the sole official member since Cooper's death in 2009.-History:...

, Dinky

Dinky

Dinky may refer to:* Dinky Duck, a toon by Terrytoons* Dinky Toys, a brand of die-cast toy vehicles* Dinky Bingham, a musician and music producer...

, Catz 'n Dogz, Max Cooper

Max Cooper

Max Cooper may refer to* Max Cooper, a protagonists in the television series Power Rangers Wild Force.* Max Cooper, a European electronica and techno musician.* Maximillion Cooper, Founder of the Gumball 3000 brand....

, Frank Bretschneider

Frank Bretschneider

Frank Bretschneider is a German electronic musician. He works primarily with sine waves and white noise as his source material. He also releases material under the name Komet....

, Pepe Bradock, Bender, Italoboyz, Subtle, Machinedrum, Sascha Funke, Matmos

Matmos

Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore signed to the Matador Records label. M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including...

, Styrofoam

Styrofoam

Styrofoam is a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company for closed-cell currently made for thermal insulation and craft applications. In 1941, researchers in Dow's Chemical Physics Lab found a way to make foamed polystyrene...

, Lusine

Lusine

Lusine is Texan Jeff McIlwain, an ambient/IDM musician. Originally a Texas native, Jeff now resides in Seattle. In 1998, he attended California Institute of the Arts to study 20th century electronic music and sound design for music and film...

, The Sight Below

The Sight Below

The Sight Below is an electronic music/shoegaze act from Seattle, Washington. Its main member is American post-minimalist composer Rafael Anton Irisarri....

, Akufen

Akufen

Marc Leclair, better known by his stage name Akufen, is a Canadian electronic musician. His music is electronic music that is often described as minimal house, minimal techno, glitch, or microhouse....

, Quantic

Quantic

Quantic may refer to:* Algebraic form, a name for the mathematical concept of algebraic forms* Quantic , a stage name of Will Holland* Quantic Dream, a video game developer studio...

, Move D, Spacetime Continuum

Spacetime Continuum

Jonah Sharp alias Spacetime Continuum is a producer of electronic music. After starting his musical career as a jazz drummer in London, UK, he moved to San Francisco, USA. During the 1990s Sharp released a series of albums on the Astralwerks record label...

, Vladislav Delay

Vladislav Delay

Vladislav Delay is one of the pseudonyms of Sasu Ripatti , a Finnish electronic musician. He has also recorded as Luomo, Sistol, Uusitalo and Conoco.-Background:...

, Girl Unit, Tim Exile, The Album Leaf

The Album Leaf

The Album Leaf is an American solo musical project founded in San Diego, California in 1998 by Jimmy LaValle. He is known for his use of electronics, synthesizer and Rhodes piano...

, Shackleton

Shackleton

Shackleton may refer to:* Avro Shackleton, a maritime patrol aircraft* Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer best known as the leader of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17* Shackleton , dubstep producer...

, Itak Tek, Matias Aguayo, Egyptrixx, FaltyDL, Voodeux, VibeSquad, Bok Bok, Jeff Samuel, The Dead Texan

The Dead Texan

The Dead Texan is an audio-visual musical duo comprising Adam Wiltzie and Greek video artist Christina Vantzou. Wiltzie is better known as one half of the ambient project Stars of the Lid...

, Smash TV, Marcus Nikolai, Dabrye

Dabrye

Dabrye is an alias of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based musician Tadd Mullinix , whose Winking Makes A Face was the first album released by Ann Arbor’s Ghostly International...

, Smash TV

Smash TV

Smash TV is a 1990 arcade game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams. Home versions were developed for various platforms and most were published by Acclaim Entertainment.-Description:...

, Tipper, Jacob London, T.Raumschmiere, Scott Pagano

Scott Pagano

Scott Pagano is a Los Angeles-based video artist, filmmaker, and motion graphics designer and is recognized for his distinctive style of moving images constructed by re-mixing images of architecture, daily life, and intricate CG graphics...

, Harold Budd

Harold Budd

Harold Budd is an American ambient/avant-garde composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles, he was raised in the Mojave Desert, and was inspired at an early age by the humming tone caused by wind blown across telephone wires....

, Frivolous, Loscil

Loscil

Loscil is the electronic/ambient music project of Scott Morgan, from Vancouver, BC. The name Loscil is taken from the "looping oscillator" function in Csound...

, Robert Babicz, Christopher Willits

Christopher Willits

Christopher Willits is a musician and multimedia artist located in San Francisco. Willits is "a prominent experimental musician from the San Francisco Bay area" and "a pioneer and a teacher, exploring new methodologies for signal processing.". He has been instrumental in redefining the guitar in...

, Strategy, Mochipet, Kangding Ray and Deadbeat.

Decibel Festival is a member of ICAS (International Cities of Advanced Sound).

External links

• Decibel Festival
• Decibel Facebook Page
• Decibel Twitter Page
• Decibel YouTube Page