Photo: Soundshifter: Philosopher-reedman John Berndt provided the inspiration for this year''s BSEMF.

Henry Miller once wrote, "We''re creators by permission, by grace as it were. No one creates alone, of and by himself." If Miller believed the act of creation to be a communal (ad)venture, then he would no doubt approve of the format of this year''s Big Sur Experimental Music Festival, which promises to bring over 90 diverse musicians to the Henry Miller Library on May 31 and June 1.

The theme of the festival--if experimental music can be said to have one--is "Sound/Shift," an idea that originated with self-described musician, philosopher, and graphic designer John Berndt. Sound/Shift debuted in Berndt''s hometown of Baltimore in 2002 with more than 50 freely improvising musicians. For the uninitiated, improvised music is, according to Berndt, "a process of liberation, a working around the assumptions that define our civilization, and the results are open-ended."

In addition to giving birth to Sound/Shift, Berndt is the organizer of High Zero, an experimental music festival held annually in Baltimore, which bills itself as "one of the most unusual, mind-blowing musical events in the world."

Describing Sound/Shift is like painting blindfolded. At its most basic, Sound/Shift is a framework within which an astounding number of musicians play with (and off of) one another despite the likelihood of never having met, let alone played together. As the name implies, the musicians take shifts, each approximately 40 minutes long, while every ten minutes, a new musician or group (and thus a new sound) is introduced to the mix.

The end result will be an eight-hour-long continuous composition on each day of the festival.

Matt Davignon, a Bay Area turntablist, describes Sound/Shift in terms of physical renewal. He sees the collective of musicians as a body that, like the human body, replaces its "molecules" at a certain rate until eventually an entirely new musical body is formed.

Berndt thinks of Sound/Shift as a metaphor for life:

"You think you know what you''re doing, but the meaning is constantly shifting until you find that you have emerged as someone different from who you were at the beginning."

Ernesto Diaz-Infante, who has been involved with the Big Sur Experimental Music Festival since its inception in 1999, was among the musicians present at the Baltimore unveiling of Sound/Shift. Diaz-Infante is a Bay Area guitarist and co-founder of Pax (pronounced Posh) Recordings, a small, San Francisco-based independent label whose mission it is to "document and keep alive creativity that''s not ''in the box''."

When Diaz-Infante returned from Sound/Shift Baltimore, he collaborated with the like-minded Davignon to organize Sound/Shift Oakland--which took place in January of this year--as a way to bring the disparate Bay Area experimental music communities together. The festival featured 68 musicians, one of whom, according to Davignon, played nails.

Another musician was slated to play dry ice, but could not find any in time, leaving unanswered the Zen-like question, "What is the sound of dry ice sublimating?"

Diaz-Infante and Davignon are collaborating again in Big Sur this weekend. For Diaz-Infante, the festival "represents a large-scale composition that we''re performing, bringing to life and sharing with other anarchistic kindred listeners that are witnessing a special ritual event, and celebrating in the spirit of Henry Miller."

Davignon sees it as a union of the experimental music communities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. In addition to a hearty helping of California musicians, the festival will feature acts from New Zealand and England, including two members--Jem Finer and James Fearnley--of the UK folk punk band the Pogues.

Other musicians scheduled to appear at the festival include Nathan Hubbard, who, according to Davignon, builds various instruments from Erector sets; Jason Ditzian on the Clarinet and Bamboo Sax; Rent Romus on Reeds/Things; Moe! Staiano on Percussion/Abuse (though it''s not clear what or whom he will be abusing); former Shockabilly frontman (and Rake virtuoso) Eugene Chadbourne; and Adam Tobin, composer of "spontaneous textural compositions."

Berndt''s expectations are high for the two-day festival. "I hope amazing ingenious transcendent beauty occurs, spontaneously and outside the roadmap of the current civilization," he says. "I hope people have a sense of humor about what they don''t like. I also hope the group of people involved feel their power, their idealism and intensity as a subculture capable of amazing forms of collaboration and self-articulation."

Sound/Shift Big Sur, The Big Sur Experimental Music Festival 2003, takes place Saturday and Sunday, May 31 and June 1, 11am to 8pm. $10 per day; $15 for both days. Call 667-2574.