Fans of unusual sounds and unconventional ways to make them had the opportunity to hear local and international experimental electronic music artists for five nights in a row last week at San Francisco’s Project Artaud Theatre.

Local composers and innovators presented their work alongside artists from the East Coast, Mexico and Canada during the eighth annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival.

According to Kristin Miltner, the festival production manager, it has been organized by local artists who are all volunteers.

“We’ve got acoustic musicians who use electronics to process acoustic instruments or their voice,” said Miltner. “Then we have people that just build their own instruments and circuit bends and modify toys and other existing things.”

The first festival took place in 2000, according to Pamela Z, one of the founding members of the festival steering committee.

“We felt that the Bay Area is a very important place for electronic music,” said Z. “In the sixties there was an organization called the San Francisco Tape Music Center, which spawned a lot of really important music. Also, at the same time period, the faculty at Mills College included some of the most prominent electronic music composers.”

Between 160 and 190 people visited the theatre on each night of this year’s festival, according to Z.

The attendance this year was higher than in the previous years, according to Z.

“We really kind of wanted to grow the festival. Make it a little bit bigger. Make it a little bit more official,” said Z.

» E-mail Yevgeniy Sverdlik @ yevgeniy.sverdlik@gmail.com