Dawn of Midi will play in Alabama for the first time Thursday as The Sonic Frontiers’ last concert of the year in the new performing arts building, Bryant-Jordan Hall – formerly the old chapel by Bryce Hospital.

Dawn of Midi is an acoustic band with a stand-up bass, piano and drums. The name “midi” comes from “musical instrument digital interface.” The band’s bassist, Aakaash Israni, said the name was almost a joke, as they don’t use anything digital but create an electronic sound from acoustic instruments.

“When you see us, it seems to look like a different thing than it sounds like,” Israni said. “A lot of people see the stand-up bass, the piano and drums and think of jazz. The music we play is very rhythmic and repetitive, the way percussion or electronic music may sound.”

The band members said they played tennis together before music. They met in 2006 and became friends during graduate school at Cal Art in Los Angeles, Calif. They were all interested in music and began improvising together.

Israni said their music is almost hypnotic and not only puts the audience in a trance, but themselves as well.

“From the beginning, the reason we went this direction is because it caused a strange sensation of almost a hypnotic, confusing sort of feeling on our own brains,” he said. “Bringing that to the public and hearing that causes people to feel their brain to feel lost and confused in a really pleasant way. I think that bringing that to concerts and all of these shows, that’s the fun thing. It’s like bringing some kind of strange trans-ritual or something around the world with you.”

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Dawn of Midi will perform their latest album “Dysnomia.” Each song morphs into the next creating a continuous 46–minute performance. With no vocals, the band drew inspiration from African rhythms. Israni said the instruments don’t sound the way they’re supposed to, and it can be hard to know which instrument is playing.

“It’s like a tapestry or some kind of fabric of rhythms, and every part is a sort of dialogue of a part, so any one person may not be doing something extraordinary by himself but in relation to the other two parts, an interesting sort of dialogue keeps on morphing and shifting and taking place,” Irani said. “Any time you can sort of impart a sense of wonder, I think that’s the most any art form can aspire to.”

This will be the last concert Sonic Frontiers holds this school year. Andrew Dewar, an assistant professor in New College, co-director of Creative Campus and founder of the Sonic Frontiers concert series, said they wanted the last concert to embody Sonic Frontiers’ theme of providing experimental music.

“Dawn of Midi reinvents the piano, bass and drums trio with their innovative, danceable, polyrhythmic music,” Dewar said. “Their music is a great example of the idea of ‘crossover’ without the watering down of ideas that phenomenon usually implies.”

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Sonic Frontiers had a very diverse season this year, and Dewar said they broadened their aesthetic scope even more this year. The series has stabilized in the number of concerts it offers, and Dewar said he thinks the program has finally become a staple to the community.

“People continue to be curious and interested in hearing music that is unique and is pushing boundaries,” Dewar said. “I think the Sonic Frontiers series has finally become a recognizable part of the cultural scene in Tuscaloosa. People know that if they attend a Sonic Frontiers event, they will hear something fresh, creative and unique in a friendly and welcoming environment.”

Next year, Sonic Frontiers will presenting one event a semester. The group received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts to bring saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton for a week-long residency next February.

In the fall, Dewar said he hopes to bring his San Francisco-based quartet to play its album, based on drawings by Pete Schulte, a University of Alabama art professor.

“It is a huge honor to host one of American music’s major figures to premiere new work and produce one of the largest retrospectives of his music ever staged in the U.S., and as result, we are focusing most of our energy and planning on that large-scale project,” Dewar said. “In the six years I have been at The University of Alabama, I have never performed my own compositions in Tuscaloosa, so I think it’s about time.”

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