SAY WHAT YOU will about the rise of Howard Shore and Angelo Badalamenti, film scores aren't what they used to be. The pop song driven soundtrack continues to dominate the mainstream Hollywood marketplace – we're not even going to go into the predictable Rage Against the Machine-style thrashers that seem to jump-start every action scene, or the Elton John-ish ballads that slide over the credits of so many heart-warming family flicks.

But a number of Bay Area groups are breaking the rules of contemporary soundtracks by making music that's as evocative as the visuals. Many of them will showcase their music on Saturday, the third night of the fourth annual Edgetone New Music Summit.

"It's a Bay Area phenomenon of people working with films," said Suki O'Kane, who curated the summit with Edgetone Records founder Rent Romus. "There are a lot of filmmakers that are also musicians, so it's all very seamless."

The events July 23 are split into two parts, which occur simultaneously in and around the Oakland Metro. The Pornorchestra, the Tri-Cornered Tent Show, and the Big City Orchestra perform against a projected backdrop inside the venue. The other, outdoor event, titled "The Illuminated Corridor," includes bands such as EPIC[abridged] and the Sprocket Ensemble and a slew of films, which will merge into a wash of sound and light, splayed across building facades outside the Metro.

Interestingly, the night will not feature Dave Michalak, who has been making independent films since 1971. He will play lap steel with cellist Bob Marsh in a duo called Dr. Bob during Sunday's free jazz and improvisation show.

"I've been doing original soundtracks since way back, and I've pulled from the improv community to play on different tracks," Michalak said, adding that in the past few years, the genre seems "to have gotten a lot more popular."

Live organ accompaniment was standard in the silent film era. When talkies entered the picture, diegetic sound and prerecorded scores made movie theater musicians obsolete. But according to 21 Grand program director Sarah Lockhart, writing in "Sight and Sound" in Artists' Television Access last fall, rock 'n' roll bands in the 1960s, particularly the psychedelic groups in SF, revitalized the combination of visuals and sound when they began collaborating with experimental visual artists.

The emergence of the Clubfoot Orchestra, who performed original scores for a number of silent films, like Fritz Lang's 1927 classic, Metropolis, in the 1980s, signaled the continuation of this Bay Area tradition of spectacle uniting sound and image. For EPIC[abridged]'s Christian Bruno, the group "redefined silent film accompaniment. There was something about them that stuck out in people's minds and made it seem possible."

So it makes sense that former Clubfoot member and current Sprocket Ensemble music director Nik Phelps will be performing newly composed scores in "The Illuminated Corridor". The ensemble changes to meet the needs of his writing, but he often uses violin and his own instrumental skills on brass and woodwinds. His tunes vary in tone and scope, covering cartoon swing, funk, tender impressionism, and witty allusions to archetypal soundtrack clichés such as Richard Strauss's well-worn Also Sprach Zarathustra.

"Once I started doing this, I realized I had a talent for picking music out of motion," Phelps said. "The trick is to pick them out and put them down."

Also playing "The Illuminated Corridor" is the loose collective EPIC[Abridged], who offer a combination of improvisation and composition. They want to integrate processed electronics such as found sound into a chamberlike setting that will include guitars, bass, and possibly percussion at this show. With many of their regular members, such as Wetgate's Steve Dye, away on other projects, the group will rely more heavily on electronics than usual.

Their visuals consist of three different parts. The first involves old educational films about astrology and cosmology. They construct a meta-chase scene in the second by using footage set in the Bay Area, including some from George Lucas's THX 1138. The last part involves a tiny diorama including video that will be shot and processed in real time.

The Tri-Cornered Tent Show, who take the stage indoors, have a completely different approach for their set accompanying Haxan: Witchcraft in the 20th Century, the surreal Danish cult classic from the 1920s. Drummer Philip M. Everett, six-string fretless bassist Ray Schaeffer, and sound designer Andre Custodio will play an improvised set of music.

"We don't follow any cues from the screen – it's more of the subject matter," said Everett, who explained that this will be his first attempt at this sort of performance. "Some of the songs I'm playing will be from my CD using folk and blues forms to address fallacies in politics, religion, and war and parallels in witchcraft, voodoo, and the metaphysical."

The current popularity of the genre among experimental musicians can be traced to a number of sources. Composing for the screen offers a plethora of liberating constraints that can enhance creativity, be it in straight composition or improvisation. In the case of groups like the Pornorchestra, which perform music to adult films ranging from anime to fetish, it offers a chance to excise stereotypical soundtracks and do their own kind of culture-jamming. The Bay Area art community also has a history of encouraging collaborations between artists who work in different media.

Or maybe it's just because audiences like it. Phelps mentioned that the elderly love getting to see silent films accompanied by live music because it reminds them of their childhood. For the average listener, films provide a path into music that might be considered unrepentantly difficult. So perhaps that's what it's all about: expanding the horizons of both grandparents and grandchildren. The stodgy and middle-aged need not apply. Pornorchestra, Tri-Cornered Tent Show, and Big City Orchestra play Sat/23, 9 p.m., Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakl. $10. (510) 763-1146. EPIC[abridged], the Sprocket Ensemble, Oaklandish, Cinepimps, Whore, and others play Sat/23, 8:55 p.m., outside Oakland Metro. Free. www.edgetonerecords.com.

More edge

The 2005 Edgetone New Music Summit includes the following events. For more information, visit www.edgetonerecords.com/summit05.html.

July 21

'The Future Is Now' The first event in the four-night festival presents performers who attempt to explore instruments beyond their accepted capabilities. The former Mills College students in Mire combine found sounds, guitar, and pedal steel to generate visually suggestive soundscapes. Loving samplers got Matt Davignon kicked out of numerous rock bands, but he still keeps making music. Here, he finds new and surprising possibilities in drum machines. 8 p.m., Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market, SF. $10-$12. (415) 255-5971.

July 22

'Sound on the Edge' Noise artists dominate. The musical alter-ego of Bob Scott, Xome, utilizes a brand of harsh noise that finds a sympathetic frequency in your head and makes it ring with visceral resonance. Just let it wash over you. Bran(...)pos, otherwise known as Jason Rodriguez, employs various processed mouth and nose noises to generate a symphonic cacophony of melody, color, tone, and – egad! – form. 9 p.m., 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakl. $8-$12. (510) 444-7263.

July 24

'The Inner Groove' The fourth evening of the fest celebrates free jazz and improvisation. Pianist Thollem McDonas and drummer Rick Rivera team up for the Thollem/Rivera Duo and entertain a set of compositions and improvisations that reference world music, classical, and the avant-garde. Post-bop saxophonist Jason Robinson, a member of San Diego's Trummeflora Collective, performs solo compositions. 8 p.m., 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakl. $10. (510) 444-7263.

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