Big Ears 2025 Channels the Echoesphere
by John Diliberto 09/10/2025
Big Ears Festival, the most civilized and out-there festival in America, returns March 21-24 in Knoxville, TN. And it comes with its most Echoes-centric line-up yet. It truly is a feast for Echoes listeners with BIG EARS.
Leading the way is electronic icon Steve Roach. I’m not sure what mode he’ll be in, but it should be extraordinary and long-overdue at this prestige event. Explosions in the Sky will be rendering their hypnotic/dynamic guitar orchestrations and Michael Rother will be there paying the music of Neu! and Harmonia and hopefully his own brilliant solo work as well.
Heading into ambient space is Immersion, using their Nanocluster concept, teaming up with Ambient Country band, SUSS. Immersion is Colin Newman from Wire and Malka Spigel from Minimal Compact.
Rich Ruth, who appeared on Echoes this past summer, comes in to work out his compositional free improvisation, and Tortoise, the Chicago-based progressive jam band will unfold whatever they’ve been up to lately. They haven’t released an album since 2016 but are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their eponymous debut album. Nels Cline has been steadily active and he’ll come in with both his Consentrik Quartet of free improvisors and the Nels Cline Singers, who, last I checked, do not sing.
Some musicians seem to live at the festival, and guitarist Bill Frisell is one of them. He’ll return with In My Dreams, a project that has a different ensemble every night. A schedule hasn’t been released so not sure what he’ll be doing. But. . . it’s Bill Frisell!
Taking up a large amount of sonic real estate and time is Philip Glass’s epic work, “Music in Twelve Parts,” a mesmerizing work spanning well over 3 hours. It’ll be split across two days. Originally performed with three electric organs, two flutes, four saxophones (two soprano, one alto, one tenor) and one female voice, this will be unleashed with similar instrumentation, and performed by The Philip Glass Ensemble directed by long, long-time Glass associate, Michael Riesman. Glass himself will not be performing.
On the World Fusion side is sitarist Anoushka Shankar. She’ll be in world fusion mode with her five-piece ensemble spinning ragas into space. Also appearing is Arooj Aftab, coming in on the heels of her brilliant album, Night Reign.
Bela Fleck, another frequent Big Ears participant, will bring in yet another global fusion project, this time with harpist Edmar Castañeda and drummer Antonio Sanchez.
Zakir Hussain will arrive with his Masters of Percussion, and Sun Ra Arkestra will return, led by 100-year old saxophonist Marshall Allen. They’ll be collaborating with indie-rockers Yo La Tengo.
There is also a clutch of Echoes dream-pop artists including Julia Holter, spinning songs through avant-garde strategies, and the Diva of the Downer, Marissa Nadler.
There is also an array of jazz: Fieldwork with Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman and Tyshawn Sorey; Joe Lovano’s Paramount Quartet with Julian Lage, Asante Santi Debriano, and Will Calhoun; Les Claypool’s Bastard Jazz, which can only be wild coming from the Primal Scream and Claypool Lennon Delirium; Ambrose Akinmusire, with both Honey from a Winter’s Stone and solo; one of the most over-looked drummers, the great Barry Altschul; and more.
I’ve just scratched the surface of the Big Ears bounty of great music and new discoveries. And there will be more coming right up to the festival’s start. You can see the complete list at Big Ears Festival. The links you see above are to Echoes interviews with some of these artists.