The Seattle Improvised Music Festival is in its 24th year, providing a

Published 8:00 am Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Seattle Improvised Music Festival is in its 24th year, providing a showcase for some of the most fearless new-music creators in Seattle and places further flung. Festival organizer and pianist Gust Burns (above) is himself always worth hearing, with playing that’s thoughtful, well-contoured, and magnetically repelled from every cliched phrase. He’ll perform in a few configurations. Out-of-town guests include Boston vocalist Liz Tonne, and percussionist Andrew Drury, once a mainstay of the Seattle scene who’s been in New York in recent years. Here’s how Drury describes his approach: He frequently performs using one drum, scraping the head with wood slivers and fingernails, manipulating drum head tension and harmonic patterns with bells, using the drum as an acoustic filter and amplifier for vibrations produced on other objects, and using the drum as a wind instrument.If that doesn’t necessarily sound like your thing, well, all the more reason to check it out! The fest gets underway Friday night at the Chapel Performance Space in Wallingford.