NWEAMO (New West Electronic Arts and Media Organization) takes the stage Oct. 2 and 3 at San Diego State University, featuring avant-garde composers and artists presenting works that blend DJ beats with invented instruments and electronic music.

Performances will be held at 8 p.m. each evening in Smith Recital Hall. Admission is $15 general/$10 students.

Eclectic concerts

In these eclectic concerts, performers include Tristan Shone and his "Sound Machines," custom-made machines fabricated from raw materials and utilizing open source circuitry. The devices draw heavily on aspects of industrial automation, robotics and mechanical tools and devices.

Also featured is engineer and musician Noah Vawter, best known for inventing Ambient Addition, the 1-bit groovebox, PSPKick and combyop synthesis. He is currently a Ph. D. candidate studying with the Computing Culture Research Group at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass.       

The program continues with Radio Wonderland (aka Joshua Fried), performing solo live sound processing by drumming on old shoes and manipulating a steering wheel. His controllers are a vintage Buick steering wheel, old shoes mounted on stands and some gizmos.

"The sum total is dance music," Fried said. "I ham it up like mad, using the theatricality of the objects. It's great fun —every show is rather different, naturally, because the source material is entirely different each time."

Faculty ensemble Swarmius  

Swarmius, SDSU's faculty ensemble comprised of Felix Olschofka, violin, Todd Rewoldt, saxophone, and Joe Waters, laptop composer, is committed to creating edgy classical music that connects to the music in the streets, clubs and bedrooms of today's world.

The group's shape-shifting synthesis draws from jazz, the Yoruba music of Nigeria, Eastern European, Klezmer, Indonesian gamelan, electronica, hip-hop, vaudeville, avant-garde and more.

Tickets      

To purchase tickets, please visit www.music.sdsu.edu. For further information, call Joseph Waters, (619) 594-6036.