Now into its sixth iteration, Lines of Flight is different things to different people: genre-defying, challenging and calming, it features experimental music and film, and is thus a collision of both sound and sight.
"We use 'experimental' as a very loose, generalised term," event organiser Peter Stapleton explains.
"It is basically an attitude to going a bit further.
"I think it is an aesthetic rather than a genre because it does cross a number of musical genres," he says, alluding to classifications such as free-jazz, noise-rock, electronic and experimental-folk.
"We've largely excluded bands or musicians that play songs but not totally. This time there will be two or three that do play songs but they mess with them."
Regarded as New Zealand's premier festival of experimental music, Lines of Flight began in 2000 as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival.
Stapleton's intention was to attract experimental musicians from throughout the country; the inaugural event featured eight acts spread out over two shows and subsequently grew to encompass 20 artists and five shows, though it has been trimmed in recent times.
"We were just getting so many people wanting to play and organising it is quite a task," Stapleton says.
This year's event, "is a bit more manageable", featuring four shows involving 15 groups or solo artists, including The Dead C, Our Love Will Destroy The World, Kusum Normoyle, Omit, Rosy Parlane, Alistair Galbraith, Eye, The Futurians, Pumice, Stanier Black-Five, Mela, and the Forgotten Guests.
Many of the performances will be accompanied by films, including Wellington act Seht, whose soundscapes will be augmented by a new film by Dunedin artist, film-maker and musician Kim Pieters.
Stapleton will be performing with Eye, a Dunedin experimental improvisational group that includes Peter Porteous, Nathan Thompson and Jon Chapman.
Although it uses traditional rock instruments such as drums and guitars, Eye also employs more unusual textures; short wave radio, digital sound samples, thumb piano and Tibetan bowl thrown into a mix that includes occasional vocals.
"At times we do rock out, but we often think we're in the spectrum between very quiet and very loud noise," Stapleton says.
"We are involved in that negotiation between structure and non-structure. It's about trying to find a way between those things.
"I suppose going back to [American avant-garde composer] John Cage, any kind of sound is music for us. That goes for any type of sound-generating device. They are all fair game."
Stapleton also founded the experimental label Metonymic. Since 1995 it has released about 15 albums. These days, it operates in a "low-key" manner, producing CDs that are largely sold at gigs.
Yet his musical output is not limited to the experimental. A member of Christchurch's The Pin Group, the first band to release a single on Flying Nun (Ambivalence, in 1981) and, more recently, The Terminals, Stapleton is no stranger to song structures.
"I'm also a songwriter and enjoy songs, but as a player I suppose I enjoy playing experimental music more. I enjoy exploring texture and feel. A lot of that comes from playing experimental music, where you are developing atmospheres.
"Things like harmonic structures ... some people do come from that point of view in this type of music - there is the whole experimental classical area which influences some people. But Eye is probably coming from a non-musical point of view; that noise-rock thing is a deconstruction of rock music.
"For me that is the beauty of it. There will be moments that are quite beautiful and others that are challenging."
~ See them ~
Line of Flight dates and venues:
• Thursday, March 24, 8pm at Chick's Hotel, Port Chalmers: Seht (Wgtn); Lee Noyes and Radio Cegeste (Dun); Sign of the Hag (Wgtn); Eye (Dun).
• Friday, March 25, 8pm at Chick's Hotel: Mela (Chch); Our Love Will Destroy the World (Wgtn); Kusum Normoyle (Sydney); Dead C (Dun/Chch).
• Saturday, March 26, 2pm at Masonic Lodge, Port Chalmers: The Forgotten Guests (Dun); Alastair Galbraith (Dun); Hi-Asobi (Chch).
• Saturday, March 26, 8pm at Chick's Hotel: Stanier Black-Five (Chch); Pumice (Auck); Rosy Parlane (Auck); Futurians (Dun).
• Duration: 240-minute evening shows; 180-minute afternoon show.
