Ecstatic Music: Arnold Dreyblatt and Megafaun Fuse the Avant-Garde
Berlin based composer and media artist Arnold Dreyblatt and North Carolina based psychedelic folk band Megafaun are at first glance an unlikely collaborative. Dreyblatt is part of the second generation of minimalist composers, a formidable artist equally at home in the gallery and concert hall. Megafaun are an adventurous band of good ole’ boys, whose music incorporates rock, country, bluegrass, jazz, Americana and psychedelia with a Southern, via Wisconsin, flair. The twain meets in Dreyblatt’s “rock-oriented minimalism” and Megafaun’s layered, experimental and avant-garde approach to re-creating rock. On February 27, 2013, Dreyblatt and Megafaun came together at the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall in the Kaufman Music Center to highlight the result of over 6 years of collaboration.
Composer/performer Arnold Dreyblatt (photo credit: dreyblatt.de)
Loop 2.4.3 and Clogs share not only group member Thomas Kozumplik, they also share impressive command of their instruments along with provocative and often rapturous original composition. Both groups came together at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn July 16, 2012 to celebrate Loop 2.4.3’s new album American Dreamland as well as Clogs co-founder Padma Newsome’s new composition Shady Gully, with an additional preview of his upcoming opera 2 Moon Smile.
Igor Stravinsky once said that “A good composer does not imitate; he steals.” In Histories, a new piece by Brooklyn-based composer collective Sleeping Giant and commissioned by the Deviant Septet ensemble, they do just that, stealing from the bad boy of music himself in what becomes a revisionist and exhilarating look at history, artistic influence, remix culture, and the process of creation.
Red Light New Music, a composer collective and new music ensemble now in its seventh season, presented Music in Layers on May 21 at Symphony Space in New York City. The performance included pieces by six composers, interwoven by ambient soundscapes and interludes designed by Christopher Cerrone and Adrian Knight. The concert highlighted new arrangements of works by Cerrone and Knight, as well as additional local composers Vincent Raikhel, Liam Robinson and Scott Wollschleger, plus one piece from John Cage. Cerrone and Knight based the electronic interludes on field recordings collected from New York City; Harriman State Park; Stockholm, Sweden; and Miami, Florida. These electronic interludes were meant to create a seamless listening experience, connecting one piece to the next, as well as encouraging the audience to appreciate the musicality of everyday existence.