Ancora il Più Estinto III begins Thursday, May 4

The third annual edition of Ancora il Più Estinto, a performance/installation piece produced by St. Louis musicians/improvisor/artist Eric Hall will debut at 8 p.m. this Thursday, May 4 at Dunaway Books, 3111 S. Grand. and continue from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. every Thursday in May. Admission is free.

The title translates from Italian as "staying as soft as possible" (literally: "repeat," "the most," and "very very quiet", and the event involves musicians, improvisors and sound, visual and performance artists working together to create a number of individual sonic enviroments within the space. From Hall's email announcing the event:

Over the course of the four evenings dozens of artists (invited based on their ability to, and interest in, improvising within these intimate conditions) from around the region will participate. For each set a multitude of players will perform from various parts of the space, thereby creating a unique sound-art event where what each listener hears depends on when, where, and how often they move about.

Furthermore, (through the use of mixers, discrete speaker arrangements, and close mic placement) certain performances will be amplified in different parts of the store, detaching the sound from the gestures of its creation. If a certain performer is playing acoustic in, for example, a far rear corner the sound may also be heard from a speaker in another part of the space; other performers may play electronic instruments with the speakers spread about the space in multi-channel configurations; while others are contributing tape pieces and sound sculptures created especially for these events.

This way the experiences are not about seeing specific collections of performers and, as much as possible, the audiences' role as spectator and the performers' sense of ego are diminished allowing for sound itself to be the focus: be it a speaker in front of you, a performer beside you, or the sound of your own footsteps. As the theme is quiet musics and the grids of bookshelves create several isolated performance spaces, these events aspire to encourage attentive explorations of the sonic environment.

No list of participants was included, but it seems a fairly safe bet that at least some of those who were part of last year's event will be there at some point again this year. You can find out more about why no list of musicians was published for this year by reading Thomas Crone's interview with Hall for Playback STL .

(Edited after posting to add links.)