"New music is like tasting a pint of Guinness for the first time; how do you know you'll like it if you don't try?" says the festival's artistic director, Guto Puw.

"It's like pop music; it's very diverse, so we try and arrange performances which reflect the excitement of this scene right now."

This year will include premieres of newly-composed works by renowned improv-jazz pianist Huw Warren, vocal group EXAUDI and Electroacoustic WALES.

"Electroacoustic WALES record sounds beforehand and then change them electronically. They then play the work out through a sound desk in surround-sound, which is great for the audience," said Guto. "They build a sculpture of sound, recorded and live, with the help of a great pianist."

Education remains a central theme to the festival as each performance is linked to a project in the community. Ed Wright from Electroaudio WALES has been working with children from Ysgol Pendalar, Caernarfon.

"We went out to record the sounds of Caernarfon Castle; seagulls, heavy doors slamming, people walking," said Ed. "We'll then go into the studio to turn these sounds into something more like recognisable music before performing live with the children during the festival."

Pianist Huw Warren will be encouraging pupils from Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones, Amlwch, and Holyhead High School to set aside their pop/rock preconceptions and get improvising.

"The aim is to get the pupils to compose a piece of music which we're going to perform during the concert," said Huw.

"It's quite a challenge for them because the schools don't have a classical music tradition going on. It's harder and harder for kids to hear different kinds of music because culture has become so homogenous, despite the internet."

So Huw strove to make composing fun. "As soon as they got a bit more hands-on they enjoyed themselves. I did a quick graphic score of what we'd created, got everyone to input their ideas and it got quite avant garde by the end of the day."

As for his own work, Huw explains: "Saying my music is jazz doesn't really help because it's such a wide-ranging genre these days. I suppose you'd describe my music as eclectic, with a lot of different influences.

"I'd say about five per cent of the stuff we'll play at Bangor will be written, and the rest improvised. We try not to go to the same place each night."

In addition to the concerts and schools projects, members of the public with a love of singing are invited to join a free vocal session with members of the EXAUDI choir.

Local young composers will also be celebrated as their entries for the William Mathias Composition Prize will be performed and discussed by members of Electroacoustic WALES.

The festival was on 17 to 20 March 2009. Festival photos.