The Lab

The Lab is a nonprofit experimental art and performance space located in the Mission District of San Francisco.

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Sarah Davachi / Dicky Bahto: Music for a Bellowing Room

  • The Lab 2948 16th St San Francisco, CA, 94103 (map)

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Doors 8pm / Show 8:30pm
$27 adv / $30 door / free or discounted for members
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Music for a Bellowing Room is a collaborative durational work by musician Sarah Davachi and filmmaker Dicky Bahto, both based in Los Angeles. With a performance time of three hours, Music for a Bellowing Room is an exercise in resolution, inviting the audience to shift their concentration and perception through gradual changes in sound and image.

Sarah Davachi is a Canadian experimental composer and performer who creates immersive, layered drones using a wide range of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, including organs, strings, brass, and synthesizers. Continuing a lineage of minimalist composers such as Éliane Radigue, Tony Conrad, and La Monte Young, her works expand the human perception of sound through subtle variations of considered harmonic structures, exploring overtone complexity, intonation, and natural resonance.

Dicky Bahto has exhibited work utilizing still and motion picture photography, sound, and performance at a variety of museums, galleries, microcinemas, alternative spaces, and scenic locations spanning the Northern Hemisphere, from the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles to Life Changing Ministries, a former church in West Oakland. He frequently collaborates with musicians, both as a performer and as a visual artist, including Sarah Davachi, Liz Harris, Julia Holter, and Tashi Wada, and with his cat, Katouche.

This piece was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and received its premiere performance in September 2023.