Speakers That Speak To You

Speakers That Speak To You is a newly commissioned work by DeForrest Brown, Jr., which explores how techno’s machine-like aspects connect to embodied dance and live music histories. Brown’s exposure to early Afrofuturist and jazz musicians, Black southern marching band compositions, and second-wave techno producers of the 1990s led to the development of his Black radical politics within the techno genre. Considering the genre’s site-specific origins by activating the spatial qualities of sound, Brown extends his musical and theoretical practice through the advanced sonic infrastructure and Ambisonic system of Studio 1—Goodman at EMPAC. Audiences of the live event on April 28, 2023 experience the artist’s “free-jazz”-inspired take on techno as he engages with recordings from the new album, Techxodus, in this unique sonic environment.