Aural Fixation

Frankly, it sucks hardcore that all of these technologies that work just fine – analog TVs, VCRs, and landline phones – are getting tossed out of mainstream society like yesterday’s newspaper. (Newspapers. Another piece of art that may go extinct soon. Sigh.)

A light in this deep, dark cloud of vanishing typewriters and cassette tape decks is – and arguably always has been – happening among creative types. Consider Glenna Van Nostrand, an East Coast performance artist whose Omnivore sound-art project collects what most people today would consider useless rubbish (telegraph machines, a 1950s Sylvania radio), circuit-bends and amplifies the items, and creates vitalizing noise-based soundscapes that the Cambridge-based artist layers pop vocals over.

Omnivore’s methodology can be looked at like an old-timey version of Jessica Rylan (a.k.a. Can’t) – another East Coast experimentalist who builds one-of-a-kind synthesizers – but Van Nostrand’s sound differs, leaning toward ambient stylings that tip their hat a bit to Cocteau Twins.

Omnivore performs at Trunk Space. Supporting is Providence-based singer/songwriter Liz Isenberg, whose salubrious songs will grab your being like a tool shed full of cloud-coated Vise-Grip pliers. Locals on the bill include James Fella, Owl-Out, and The Best Friends.