On April 3, musicians from Eugene, Salem and Portland perform an evening of experimental and ambient music at Cowfish. Eugene drone artist Don Haugen explores room dynamics using homemade and custom-built electronics and test instruments. Joining Haugen is Salem’s Austin Rich performing sound collage, a music-making technique similar to sampling with preexisting recorded material or audio clips melded to backing beats and harmonic structures. Also on the bill, Scott Jenerik from Portland plays traditional stringed instruments from around the world that he processed through digital effects. Eugene duo Free Static makes their debut using synthesizers and acoustic instruments in an abstract expressionist mix. Mainstreamed on platforms like Pitchfork, people are zoning out to ambient music and related styles more than ever before. “It’s slow, you have to pay attention to it,” Haugen says of the genre’s recent niche popularity. He stresses that the Cowfish concert leans into the atmospheric aspects of the sound rather than some of its challenging extremes — the ambient heavy-metal equivalent just called “noise.” Haugen adds that when it comes to experimental music, “people are taking the time to check out from their screens and get lost in sound for a bit,” Haugen says.

Don Haugen, Scott Jenerik, Austin Rich and Free Static perform 7 pm Friday, April 3, at Cowfish, 62 West Broadway. Tickets are $10 and are available at the door. No one turned away for lack of funds. The concert is 21-plus.