big-ears-2014

Big Ears Festival 2014 lineup (Steve Reich, Jonny Greenwood, John Cale, Television, Julia Holter, Oneohtrix & more)

Big Ears

Big Ears Festival, a three-day event that joins modern classical music and adventurous rock acts in venues around Knoxville, TN, will host its first festival since 2010 on March 28-30. Composer Steve Reich acts as the artist-in-resident, with Ensemble Signal, Jonny Greenwood and So Percussion performing his music. Also on the lineup are John Cale, Television, Nazoranai (Keiji Haino, Stephen O’Malley, and Oren Ambarchi) and Marc Ribot (playing solo as well as with Ceramic Dog and Los Cubanos Postizos), Laraaji, Tim Hecker, Julia Holter, Oneohtrix Point Never, Colin Stetson, Vatican Shadow, Nils Frahm, Mark McGuire, Bill Orcutt, Dean & Britta, Glenn Kotche, Susanna, Dawn of Midi and Son Lux.

Passes for the fest go on sale Friday, December 6 at noon and are $150.

The festival’s return is a good thing as its future was in question after a three year hiatus (its organizers stay busy running Bonnaroo). Big Ears 2010 was a huge undertaking–and from a listeners stand-point, a hugely successful one–with a lineup that featured the National, Dirty Projectors, Vampire Weekend, the Calder Quartet, Joanna Newsom, St. Vincent, Andrew WK, The Ex, Gang Gang Dance, Clogs, the xx, Ben Frost and Tim Hecker and artist-in-residence Terry Riley. You can see BrooklynVegan’s coverage of that fest here.