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Been saying it for over a year now, Portland is currently experiencing a music renaissance. Cherished bands are reforming and playing out for the first time in years, venues are for sure closing, but they’re also opening. It seems we even have a City Council president who might make good on being a Portland music champion. And just like that… we’ve got a new music festival and music industry conference launching this spring.
Soundscapes Northwest hits Portland’s Central Eastside April 27 to May 2 with the promise of 100+ artists and speakers across the six days and nights of the festival. The “walking festival” is, much like South By Southwest spreading across Austin, decentralized and will take over 12+ venues in Portland’s last bastion of inner city industrial. The venues have yet to be announced, but there’s a good chance there will be classic favorites, and some new industrial settings.
The initial lineup announce includes headliners Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Toro Y Moi, two bands that’ve been deep in the festival circuit for over a decade now. Though the first announced headliners do turn heads for some, the real traffic stoppers move in the lower levels of the festival’s lineup.
Jimetta Rose & The Voices of Creation was hands down the holy grail of Pickathon 2025, taking us to church during their Sunday morning Woods Stage set. While peering out from backstage with Mercury writer Jenna Fletcher, she exclaimed “I’ve never seen so many white people learn how to two-step at once.” Praise be.
Remember how hard Seattle was popping off with an intensely prolific hip-hop scene in the early 2010s? That was due in large part to the elevated consciousness of Shabazz Palaces lead astral projector, Ishmael Butler. Since dropping Shabazz Palaces’ debut Black Up in 2011, Butler has continually redesigned the hip-hop underground with every release. No surprise for the standout MC of Digable Planets.
Windy City trio Facs have been dubbed by our sister publication, the Chicago Reader as “peerless post-punk,” and we happen to agree. Their Wish Defense album last year steered the band in a more subtle direction. It’s still angular, it’s still noisy, it’s still the Chicago sound, and the push-pit that opens up is sure to scuff some Vans.
After the release of their self-titled sophomore album last year, Portland’s own, The Cosmic Tones Research Trio have been proselytizing their spiritual jazz gospel performance to performance, listening party to listening party. The Trio’s north star, Alice Coltrane, smiles down on the three, blessing their eternal exploration of the Great Mystery. Let the band’s music wash over you, cleansing what needs cleansing, igniting what needs igniting.
Related: Read our Best Portland Albums of 2025, on which The Cosmic Tones Research Trio make many appearances.
Perennial Portland favorite Y La Bamba holds the distinction of being Soundscape NW’s first Artist in Residence. What that means exactly has yet to be announced, though Portland rides for Y La Bamba and its mastermind, Luz Elena Mendoza. It’ll be nourishing to see the band back in town, being recognized as the deities they are.
Other bright sunspots playing Soundscape NW’s debut include the cosmic collage hip-hop of Brown Calculus, Orquestra Pacifico Tropical’s Earth-moving cumbia (by Earth I mean ass, and by moving I mean shaking), the soft vibrations of Seattle’s Damien Jurado, the Indigenous psych-pop stylings of Ya Tseen—who recently toured with Portugal. The Man, industrial music heavyweight Lead Into Gold, the Lou Reed-loving band Mirrors, and the powerful power of Yawa’s electronics.
But don’t take my word for it, check the full lineup below.
Soundscape Northwest’s inaugural music festival and conference lands in Portland’s Central Eastside April 27 to May 2. Tickets and more info here.
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Nolan Parker
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