These are powers has a mission: to transform the boundaries of its musical endeavors by expanding the vision of what a band can be and mean. “It’s kind of making the idea of a band a community project as much as an ego-driven one,” says Pat Noecker, the Brooklyn/Chicago avant-punk trio’s bassist, as we sit talking at Bell House, the Gowanus venue just around the corner from the band’s practice space.

The spirit of communion and the possibility for epic change have been a driving force behind These Are Powers’ creativity over the past year. And the band will unveil the grandly titled, forward-looking record All Aboard Future, a mass of throbbing angular electro-acoustic collages, at an art installation and performance Friday at Secret Project Robot. As part of the show,These Are Powers invited twelve artists, mostly from Chicago and New York, to interpret the concept for the record, either by listening to it or focusing solely on its title, and craft work for the album and These Are Powers’ first curated event.

“The way we explained [the concept] to them was a rejection of fear about the future and creating a positive dynamic community, a sustainable community of people through creative expression,” says Anna Barie, who sings and plays guitar and keyboards in the band. These Are Powers began working on the optimistic, change-oriented All Aboard Future last summer, and finished the recording in August, long before it was clear that 2009 would indeed bring a new U.S. administration headed by the first African-American president. So though it’s riding the wave of positivity, the group’s inspiration sprang from a wholly different source.

“In our touring the last year and a half there’s been so much talk about the year 2012 in the underground,” Noecker says, referring to various theories about a global transformation (possibly apocalyptic) occurring in 2012, based on the Mayan calendar. “And there’s been a lot of fervor about creating a new sense of community…handmade books, handmade albums, farmer’s markets, supporting local businesses and not corporations.

People want community because we’re tired of living in a corporate society… now there’s a lot of hope and excitement for a better future.

Definitely better than the last eight years, but maybe better than what we’ve been building up since the end of World War II, which is this industrialized corporate society.”

All Aboard Future often sounds like a reaction to an industrial landscape, with its hallucinatory mixture of grinding distortion, pulsating drums and abstract disjointed lyrics at times mimicking the rasp and repetition of mechanization. But the dreamlike collages of the album are far more stripped down than previous records, offering a sparer, more subdued version of These Are Powers. Noecker says that the most marked difference between this record and the last two, Taro Tarot and Terrific Seasons, in terms of These Are Powers’ approach, is the emphasis on softening the tone. “Some people were calling us no-wave at the beginning, which is fine,” Noecker says. “We feel like we wanted to grow into something else. Evolving from record to record from song to song is really important to us.” And the band has altered its live set-up recently as well, with Barie choosing to lay her guitar aside and focus primarily on her voice, which she distorts with pedals, and a bit of keyboards. Noecker continues to use a prepared bass, which has a wooden dowel rod inserted under the strings to create another bridge and strings with non-standard tuning, all of which he manipulates with pedals. And Bill Salas plays acoustic drums, along with a sampling pad and assorted electronics. For the most part, the studio recording and live performances can’t be compared, Noecker says, because the energy is vastly different with a live audience, but he does see the two converging on at least one level.

“The one similarity between the live show and the studio thing is we do try to make it sound collagey, cut-cut-cut … so it’s all these sound images mashed together that you play like a machine,” Noecker says. “But you give it that spirit.”

At Secret Project Robot, the trio promises a singular show, 30 minutes of performance-based mayhem inside artist Brendan Missett’s installation, which seems to be a California-centric free-for-all that will fit right in with the communal atmosphere.

“He said something to the effect of it being like Big Sur 1964, channeling Robert Mitchum and juicing for people,” Barie says. “I’m probably not doing it justice.”

> These Are Powers

Feb. 13, Secret Project Robot, 210 Kent Ave. (at River St.), Brooklyn, 917-860-8282; 8, Free.