Plastic Acid Orchestra is a modern full symphony orchestra that creates an exciting new musical experience by combining original Plastic Acid compositions, bold compositions from some of the most accomplished young Canadian composers and modern symphonic arrangements of popular music. Founded by Music Director, Bryan Deans, PAO brings a symphonic sound with a modern edge that tears down both genres and generations.

Since its first concert series in 2006, PAO has kept its repertoire open to collaborations with new Canadian composers to include exciting and innovative pieces such as Martin Reisle's (Maria in the Shower) Train of Pounding Hours, Jason Nett's (former resident composer Vancouver Island Symphony) Sol, Tungstein and Heavy Metals as well as arrangements of Plastic Acid originals such as Epic and Resources. In addition to this, PAO has performed arrangements of Soundgarden, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson as well as Led Zeppelin's Kashmir which was arranged and vocally performed by Mike Bell (The Living). Bryan hopes to take audiences on a musical experience that encompasses truly classical works such as Beethoven, Shostakovich and Dvořák while showcasing new, modern composers and revisiting contemporary hit songs. Deans' sometimes unorthodox programmes tear down genres, pushing audiences from innovative new classical to contemporary pieces full of guilty pleasures.

PAO has done many exciting performances in unusual venues -- nightclubs such as The Caprice and Venue where the audience was able to get close to the orchestra and yell and cheer more akin to a rock show. In one instance, PAO became "fully-electrified" where the performers were all amplified by pick-ups thanks in part to a sponsorship from Roland on the technical audio engineering. Performances have been accompanied by light and multi-media shows, burlesque dancers and fire-poi performances - providing a richer concert experience. PAO paired up with indie roots band Maria in the Shower in 2012 for a near sold out performance at the Vogue Theatre. The performance featured songs such as Train of Pounding Hours which repurposes chains, a sledgehammer and a cinder-block as percussive instruments -- both exciting to see and hear.

Plastic Acid Orchestra regularly performs full orchestra shows in Vancouver has performed with tours such as Video Games Live and Legend of Zelda. In 2015, PAO was the largest group to perform in the history of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival playing to an outdoor crowd of over 3000 people. In 2014, PAO performed at Performance Works with special guest Jay Malinowski (Bedouin Soundclash/The Deadcoast) and a Halloween show featuring full orchestra performances of Michael Jackson's Thriller and the soundtrack from Psycho. PAO regularly invites performers such as The End Tree, Maria in the Shower, Anita Eccleston, The Living, the Whiskeydicks and has featured many new works or arrangements from composers such as Giorgio Magnanensi, Elliot Vaughan, Martin Reisle, Mike Bell, Jim Hopson, Mariah Mennie and many others.

Stefan Smulovitz is a true innovator known for his creative use of technology and mastery of sound manipulation. His craft has been honed creating nearly 100 live film scores, innumerable dance and theatre scores, and hundreds of live performances with some of the top improvising musicians in the world. Stefan’s roots as an improviser allow him to skillfully use viola, electronics, and his game-changing software Kenaxis, to create vast sonic worlds. Always open to exploring new ideas he has collaborated with film, dance, theatre, poets, writers, visual artists, theoretical particle physicists, buffoon, circus, and now most excitingly crows!

He lives in Roberts Creek, BC where he is working on his most ambitious project yet…

Communicating in a language of errors, hum, crackle, feedback, found sounds and images, audio and visual artist Jacob Audrey Taves is best known for their ongoing plunderphonic industrial project HOLZKOPF. They are also a member of ORGANS WITHOUT BODIES (with percussionist John Brennan) as well as ASSAULT CHARGE (a punk/digital hardcore band with songwriter and author Eamon McGrath). Taves was the guitar player for the short lived no-wave three piece OTHER JESUS. They are curator of the audio/video collage series INTERIOR NETWORK and host of OFF-WORLD, Mondays at 8pm local time, on CJSR 88.5FM in Edmonton, Canada.

Using a combination of analogue and digital no-input mixing, chance and juggled and cut-up corrupted audio artifacts, Jacob Audrey Taves performs work that channels the cassette DJ techniques they became known for in previous projects while taking full advantage of the extreme possibilities of digital processing.