The Soundwave board of directors are honored to award this season’s Buzz Award recipient(s) to Wizard Apprentice, Alexandrea Achuleta and Takiaya Reed (of Divide and Dissolve).
Wizard Apprentice is a producer, performer, and 2017 Soundwave artist, is a self-described highly sensitive introvert who uses her multimedia projects as strategies for managing an overwhelming world. Compared to Laurie Anderson by The Wire, Carter is “entangled and entranced in the eccentric minutiae of her own psyche.”
Alexandrea Archuleta (Piano Rain, DJ Ladybug, Puzzle, House of Velocity) is a two-spirit mestiza a sound artist, producer, DJ, quilter and 2018 Soundwave artist that weaves together sounds and textures, as a healing material, into a garden of memory, connecting the past through the present and into the future.
Takiaya Reed plays electro-acoustic soprano saxophone and guitar for sludge metal band Divide and Dissolve, whose music addresses decolonization, indigenous sovereignty, and Black liberation.
The board selected Wizard Apprentice, Alexandrea and Takiaya, to acknowledge their important work in sonic explorations of empathy, healing, trauma, and decolonization. These artists’ presence has defined the Bay Area’s movement for expanding access to experimental music, both with their individual sonic works and their external community organizing. Without them, the diversity in the experimental music scene with its emphasis on Queer, Trans, Black, and Brown artists, would not be what it is today.
Every two years, the BUZZ Award recognizes one promising San Francisco Bay Area artist that is making a creative impact with their sound-related work and has demonstrated great potential and commitment to performance and immersive art. This year the board worked hard to enable three exceptional artists to receive the financial prize, especially given the hardship our artistic community is experiencing during these unprecedented times.
Soundwave established this award in memory of the late Robert T. Armstrong (known as ‘Buzz’ to everyone around him), the father of founding board member, Louis Armstrong. Buzz was an avid music lover and a proud supporter of young artists. The award honors his legacy to support the most exciting emerging artists and Soundwave’s mission of promoting innovative experiences and inspiring critical dialogue and progressive ideas in our communities.