MSND @ Bartell Theatre |6 shows down, 7 to go! |Score Talk

| Strollers Theater | FB.Event | Isthmus | Bartell Theatre | DB Pedersen |

“Have you read the footnotes to this play?  I didn’t realize there were so many words for vagina -  it’s basically a porno!”  ~ db pedersen

DB’s pit POV

Strollers Theatre
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
May 3rd through May 25th @ Bartell Theatre
William Shakespeare | directed by Greg Harris
Original Score by db pedersen & Brothers Grimm

$20 general admission
$15 for seniors, students, & Strollers members

Call || 661-9696 ext. 2
Web || strollerstheatre.org

second half of MSND runs…

Thursday, May 16, 2013 – 7:30pm
Friday, May 17, 2013 – 8:00pm
Saturday, May 18, 2013 – 4:00pm
Saturday, May 18, 2013 – 8:00pm

Thursday, May 23, 2013 – 7:30pm
Friday, May 24, 2013 – 8:00pm
Saturday, May 25, 2013 – 8:00pm

Notes on the original live score, composed and performed by Brothers Grimm & db pedersen >

In approaching the score for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, db pedersen presented the Brothers Grimm with theme sketches and initial cue concepts that had been developed with dir. Greg Harris. We then spent the next few weeks of April attending rehearsals, observing the actors develop their character. In the nights following these observations we’d convene to have fast paced cue-composition sessions. One by one, we deconstructed db’s thematic material and built them up from the ground as a trio – finding our strongest instrumentation as we went. Our goal was to reduce the sauce of these themes down to a flavorful, simple substance – and hit tech week with a lot of room to grown organically in our accompaniment to the actors.

Main instruments
AJ ~ classical guitar
BC ~ cello & guzheng
DB ~ vocal-foley/sfx, throat singing, shruti box, various flutes, animal noises

Implements & Sough!

• Pot Lid “tree” (struck//bowed) 
• bowed Saw 

• various 

  Bells 

• Slide 

  Whistles 

• Woodblock 
• Wup-Wob Cards (bent//bowed) 
• boxes of Twigs//Branches 
• … & etc!

// All material played on the 21 string Chinese guzheng 古筝 zither for this production’s score is in emulation of the European harp & hammered dulcimer. The entire instrument has been customized & re-tuned to fit different theme material in each register/octave. It is a completely unique tuning, never before used on the instrument, designed specifically for this show. [ ~Traditionally, the zither is tuned in multiple octaves of a single pentatonic scale; adapting pentatonic mode to fit the key, from D1 - D5]

MSND custom guzheng tuning, from low to high >

E♭1-F1-G♯1-A1-C2-D♯2-F2-G2-A2-C3-E3-F♯3-G3-A3-B3-C♯4-D4-F4-G♯4-B4′C♯5

~ and we hope here is a score fitted!

all photographs copyright Jonathan J Miner//J Miner Photography 

(except for musician pit photos)

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5/3 Opening Night | MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM @ Bartell Theatre | Bros. Grimm + db pedersen Original Score

| Strollers Theater | FB.Event | Isthmus | Bartell Theatre | DB Pedersen |

Strollers Theatre
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
May 3rd through May 25th @ Bartell Theatre
William Shakespeare | directed by Greg Harris
db pedersen & Brothers Grimm

$20 general admission
$15 for seniors, students, & Strollers members

Call || 661-9696 ext. 2
Web || strollerstheatre.org

Love, Betrayal, Illusion and Laughter will all be there as Strollers gets “Back to the canon” with Shakespeare’s most recognizable and beloved comedy. But trust Strollers to treat you to a fresh look at the classics. Even if you’ve seen it a hundred times before, we believe you will find new and wonderful things to love in our final show of the season.

Thou speak’st aright; I am that merry wanderer of the night.

I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile
–Puck

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SHOW DATES

Fri May 3, 8:00pm

Sat May, 8:00pm

//

Thr May 9, 7:30pm

Fri May 10, 8:00pm

Sat May 11,  4:00pm

Sat May 11,  8:00pm

/

/

/

Thr May 16, 7:30pm

Fri May 17, 8:00pm

Sat May 18, 4:00pm

Sat May 18, 8:00pm

//

Thr May 23, 7:30pm

Fri May 24, 8:00pm

Sat May 25, 8:00pm

//

all photographs copyright Jonathan J Miner/J Miner Photography

//

5/4 11:30am | Julian Lynch @ Revelry Music & Arts Festival

Revelry Music & Arts Festival | The Sett  |  Sat, 5/4  $5 ($10 day of)

11:30 a.m. – 12:15 pm   JULIAN LYNCH
12:45 – 1:30 pm   PHOX
2 – 2:30 pm CHANCE THE RAPPER ft. CRASHprez, RAGELIFE & Lord of the Fly

4 – 5 pm   THE MOWGLI’S

>complete festival schedule 

Julian Lynch will perform an early show at the Revelry Music & Arts Festival this Saturday, May 4th, 11:30am at The Sett. His band brings together musicians from various circles in the Madison music scene – featuring Julian on vocals/guitar, Joel Shanahan (aka Golden Donna) on bass guitar, Kenny Monroe drums & Jackie Kursel cello (of Pioneer > be sure to check out their new album Black Pasture!!), and BC Grimm on cello. It has been a blast learning & playing material from Julian’s pulchritudinous new album, Lines (4/5/13) – come out & hear us this Sat!

Watch Julian’s new video for Gloves, Dir./Prod. by Sarah Kinlaw!

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Tomorrow on GrimmusiK > details on A Midsummer Night’s Dream opening weekend @ Bartell Theatre w/ live score by Bros. Grimm & db pedersen!

4/26 8pm COLIAS 1 ►Preview 3 Bros. Grimm + DB Ped. // Shakespeare scores

ᄽ|Preview COLIAS 1 TONIGHT 4/25 11pm on Gross Time w/ DJ EW/RadioTWC|ᄿ

ᗓ  Fri, 4/26 8pm  ᗕ

∬  Bright Red Studios | $7 Entry + CD | $5 Entry Only | All Ages  ∯

COLIAS 1  RELEASE PARTY
BROS.GRIMM + DB PEDERSEN   (MAD)
NUDE HUMAN   (MAD/MKE)
ESKIMEAUX   (PHL/CHI)
CJ BOYD   (USA)

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This week we mark the birth&death-day of Willy Shakespeare …. and for those who know us, you are aware that the Brothers Grimm have been hard at work scoring two of the Bard‘s plays. 

இ Comedy!

Brothers Grimm & db pedersen are putting the finishing touches on a live instrument score to accompany A Midsummer Night’s Dream this May - directed by Greg Harris with Strollers Theatre, Ltd at the Bartell Theatre (Madison).

 The production opens next Friday, May 3rd.

 for when, where, how much? check out the Isthmus Guide

௸ Tradgedy!

Directly on the heels of MSND’s closing night, the Bros. Grimm will head down to Indianapolis and perform their foley/sound-score for NoExit Performance‘s production of Macbeth directed by Michael Burke.

Macbeth opens Thursday, June 13th

see photos from our Bradbury’s Coffee foley recording session!

 

 ண here’s our 3rd and final preview for tomorrow’s COLIAS 1 release party!

Everything in this track that isn’t DB’s wonderful vocal performance is source sound from the Bradbury’s ladder, gathered during our Macbeth rec session. Including the ‘ah-ahk//gagaku’ style wailing-melody in the background!

►Preview 3 |Brothers Grimm & db pedersen 
 – Ladder Study 1 (Alice Cooper’s Tears)

Featured Performer ☛ CJ BOYD |COLIAS 1 2xCD Release Party 4/26 8pm

∵≒ ≓∴∵≒ ≓∴∵≒ ≓∴∵≒ ≓∴

  |CJ Boyd.com |CJ Boyd.bandcamp |Joyful Noise Recordings |Kurva Choir|

ᄽ|Radio-preview 4/25 11pm on Gross Time w/ DJ EW/RadioTWC|ᄿ

ᗓ  Fri, 4/26 8pm  ᗕ

∬  Bright Red Studios | $7 Entry + CD | $5 Entry Only | All Ages  ∯

COLIAS 1  RELEASE PARTY
BROS.GRIMM + DB PEDERSEN   (MAD)
NUDE HUMAN   (MAD/MKE)
ESKIMEAUX   (PHL/CHI)
CJ BOYD   (USA)

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CJ BOYD

Equal parts ambient and virtuosic, melancholic and playful, CJ Boyd’s bass playing melts glaciers, creating a sea of low, flowing rhythms, while also supplying melodies that soar over the ocean to melt the sun itself. Waves of bass loops are garnished with harmonica drones and constant improvisational exploration. This is deep-sea-diving for the hungry and alone. While certainly following in the footstep of great bassists like Mingus and Meyer, Boyd’s aesthetic sensibility also seeks to wed the minimalism of Reich and Glass with what might be called the maximalism of Beethoven chamber music. But all this is further complicated by the presence of Boyd’s improvisational prowess. Not funky, not a bassplayer’s bassplayer exactly, but something refreshing and impressive-improvising with fingers that only know how to dance to the deepest tunes. One thinks Nietzsche might have had CJ in mind when he said, “Maturity consists in regaining the seriousness one had as a child at play.” This is childsplay for the experienced listener.

௵ Friends,  Improvisers, New Music appreciators, & Colias collaborators ᗙ we’ve got a special guest joining us! Come to Bright Red Studios this Friday, 8pm to hear CJ Boyd - a constant traveler, who considers no/every place his home. We’re delighted he chose to drop by Madison and share his talents!  CJ’s contribution to the COLIAS 1 release can be found on Disc 1, it’s a lush string trio piece from his group Kurva Choir ᗉ they’re wondrous - check ‘em out below!

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►Preview 2 | Kurva Choir – Love in a mist/ devil in the bush

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PS… COLIAS Preview 3 tomorrow!

4/26 | COLIAS 1 Release Party | 2xCD Ambient Compilation

▧  Mine All Mine and GrimmusiK present COLIAS 1  ▤

 ∲  Bright Red Studios | $7 Entry + CD | $5 Entry Only | All Ages  ∳
COLIAS 1  RELEASE PARTY
BROS.GRIMM + DB PEDERSEN   (MAD)
NUDE HUMAN   (MAD/MKE)
ESKIMEAUX   (PHL/CHI)
CJ BOYD   (USA)

░▒▓▓▒░

Mine All Mine and GrimmusiK present COLIAS 1, the first in a new series of ambient releases that started with a simple prompt: “What does ambient music mean to you?”  The result is a compilation of heard and unheard material from the minds of Madison’s most prolific experimenters (with regional and national guests).

The compilation is a collaborative produced between Mine All Mine Records and GrimmusiK, & will be available as a limited edition two disc physical release.  Packaging design and album art by John Praw of Mine All Mine.

The release party will feature Madison locals Nude Human (John Praw + Pat Reinholz), Brothers Grimm with DB Pedersen, and special guests CJ Boyd (represented on the compilation as part of Kurva Choir) and long-time Mine All Mine collaborator eskimeaux.  The show will be held at Bright Red Studios on 9 Ingersoll Street, Madison, WI.

 Facebook Event

Show + CD Pre-order

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COLIAS 1 ≽ Official Track List

Disc 1 [1:01:23]: 
01  Nude Human – Nude Human 1 (Live Excerpt)
02  Wayfaraway – Nights
03  bell monks – let the waves carry us (part II)
04  Kurva Choir – Love in a mist/ devil in the bush
05  Pat R. Feat. Emily Brown – meadii
06  Asumaya – Cooking at Night (ft Widnaba Club)
07  Kathleen Baird – The Invention of Truth
08  Brain Grimmer – Well, I Think I Would Want To Say…
09  Melancholy Elephants – Wet Dream
10  William Z. Villain - Bomb Goes Büm
11  eskimeaux – The Result
12  James Mooney – Piute. Gambling song; Arapaho No. 67 (1894 July 5)
        ♭♮♯
Disc 2 [0:59:25]:
01  John Praw – fevrr (ft bwc)
02  Gregory Taylor – Lambat Awan [slendro]
03  Shawn Kenneth Pierce – Foxgloves and Weeds
04  *hitmayng – Sydney
05  Corey Muphy – Life’s Too Short to Wind Clocks
06  Dressed Up – Nobody But Batman
07  Silas “Be” Ritchie feat. Brian Tairaku Ritchie (Shakuhachi) – Laborious Breath
08  Brothers Grimm & DB Pedersen – Ladder Study 1 (Alice Cooper’s Tears)
09  Troy Schafer – Untitled 
10  A.Rex – Champagne Dick
11  Thollem Electric – [excerpt] Sudden Sound Series: live at Krannert Art Museum
12  Ben Willis – Agatha
13  Unidentified Chimes Performer – Home, sweet home (1899 September 15)

Release Date: 26 April 2013
Catalog No: mam234
Format: 2xCD & Digital Download

►Preview 1 | BRAIN GRIMMER solo guzheng improvisation   

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Next week on GrimmusiK ⇉ featured performer spotlight on CJ BOYD

∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯∮∯∰∯

New Guzheng Hammers!

Check it out > I just picked up some new Dulcimer hammers for the Guzheng from Spruce Tree! The leather side sounds gorgeous

If you want to hear how it sounds, join us @ Rigby this Thursday, 4/11!
THE RIGBY PRESENTS
Les Racquet (NYC)
Mind Born Sons (Mad)
Stray Passage (Mad)

9pm | $7 | 21+
FB.Event > http://on.fb.me/XouwmU

4/3 ☛ SULT & BrosGrimm + Eric Miller @ Dobra Tea

⑈| Sult album ᗚ Bark | GrimmusiK | Dobra |⑉

4/3  8-10pm @ Dobra Tea

SULT

BROTHERS GRIMM + ERIC MILLER

Suggested $5 donation

♭ ♮ ♯

▓ Free Improv’ers & Tea Drinkers of Madison ⇝ Join us for a special night of improvising trios next Wednesday, April 3rd at the tea room.

8pm  Eric Miller (bass viola da gamba, trumpet) will join the Brothers Grimm ∱ at 9pm  the space-aware, contemplative music of Sult will bloom through the room (see below) ∯ For those who have supported Watercourse Q4 Dobra experiences in the past ≽ you won’t want to miss this show! Sult is most certainly a kindred spirit to the WCQ4 sound.  

♭ ♮ ♯

Sult (Oslo/San Francisco)

Jacob Felix Heule  percussion
Guro Skumsnes Moe  contrabass
Håvard Skaset  acoustic guitar

Sult is a Norwegian/American trio playing sound-oriented improvised music: Acoustic noise drawing inspiration from contemporary music, electroacoustic improv, and drone. Their music reflects great patience, deep listening, and complete trust in one another. Their individual sounds alternately cohere into unified group textures, and run precariously aside one another as independent streams.

The group has been working together since January 2008, and has played throughout Europe and America. They are dedicated to developing their band through touring, in order to explore their music as deeply as possible. In the spring of 2012, they toured the US and Scandinavia, and released their first album, Bark, on Bug Incision. A new LP, Harm, is forthcoming this spring on Bocian Records.

Members of the trio have performed extensively with their own projects Ettrick, Basshaters, Bluefaced People, and MOE; and have collaborated with musicians such as Fred Frith, Bill Orcutt, Maja S. K. Ratkje, Okkyung Lee, Ikue Mori, Barn Owl, Michel Doneda, Jack Wright, and Gino Robair.

 ↜Oslo, May 2012

“a precise gravitude whose nodes, voltages, rails and landfills, are the bulk of the speech.” — Guillaume Belhomme, Le son du grisli (via Google Translate)

↜Phoenix, March 2012

“music with a preponderance of fundamentally rich percussive traits and sneering anti-melodies … Sult [has existed] since 2008… and it shows: their interplay – in spite of the timbral jaggedness – is solid, even precise, musical in the right spots and also in the ‘wrong’ ones. The quartet is positively willing to let room for a listener to break through the secret corners of what gets conceived on the spot, which is basically the raison d’être behind the enjoyableness of the whole.” — Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

“These compositions sound at once orchestral and also mechanistic – a natural industrial sound. Several compositions on Bark reminded me of listening to a wooden boat hull adjusting at sea or a house’s walls shifting. There is an unpredictable yet organic tendency to the creaks and drones.” — Thomas John Filardo, Suave Citation

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MACBETH 2013 | Brothers Grimm record foley score at Bradbury’s Coffee

| GrimmusiK | NoExit | Bradbury’s | Aud: JonBrumbaugh | Vid: Glynnis Ritchie |

 

MACBETH 

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

DIRECTED BY MICHAEL BURKE

JUNE 2013

SCORE BROTHERS GRIMM

NoExit Performance 

NoExit Performance | Macbeth June 2013

[click gallery to view full screen stills by Glynnis Ritchie]

The Brothers Grimm are composing their first electronic sound score for NoExit Performance’s production of MACBETH this June, 2013 (Indianapolis). Director Michael Burke is devising to explore uncomfortable territories in Shakespeare’s classic dark tragedy through a site specific setting. The show will not be a traditional rendition, but instead 13 patients trapped in a single room of a mental ward – all reciting their own version of Macbeth at the same time.

The concept for the score involves setting less musical elements. No melody. No harmony. No rhythm. Instead, we’re creating sound banks of recorded foley & will treat/effect them to our purposes. With these sound banks we will improvise the score on an Akai APC 40 with the ability to instantaneously surprise, inspire, pace, & effect the actors performances.

Special thanks to Bradbury’s Coffee for letting us record the sounds in their space! Also, thank you Jon Brumbaugh for recording audio & Glynnis Ritchie for taking excellent video!

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check out the new front page to keep conversant with our Projects & Shows

Click on our blog’s UPCOMING button for performance dates/times

Current of Air | Jan 2013 Hong Kong Premiere (Video)

CURRENT OF AIR

Hong Kong Premiere Jan 2013

LED + Lighting |  James Kong,

Morgan Aasdam,  PC Sei

​Choreography |  Koala Yip

​Dancer | Christine He

​Score | Brothers Grimm

|

It has been five years since I studied Chinese string instruments in Hong Kong.  I couldn’t be more thrilled that Koala Yip decided to use my guqin music for this project.  It means so much to have my music vibrate the air in Hong Kong –  expressing “this is where I’m at, what I’ve learned, what I have to say on guqin” to a place/people that I love.

Thank You Koala!

~ BCG

Current of Air | Koala Yip  Artistic Director 

“This piece anticipates a new dimension of artform, “Performative Installation”. The performance integrates live performance and interactive media instillation intends to bring the audience an innovative way of theatre experience. This form of art merges boundaries of contemporary media arts and conventional stage performance.  The intention is to investigate a more philosophical issue of “Sense of Air” employing an artistic way of expression. This piece illustrates the diffusiveness of airs, which human body flows between visible and invisible, between presence and absence, and between the extremity of natural terrain and modern landscape. ”

Structure

| “Current of Air” applies the form of “Book” as primary structure of presentation. Each chapter aims to bring up certain theoretical enquiries between theatre performance and new media arts. These questionings are expressed through an experimental art production, performative installation. Our team intends to bring new message to our audience beyond the external terrain of “watching”. Instead, to explore a way of “reading” to appreciate and contemplate the internal terrain of an art piece, just as to inhale and exhale along with the flow of reading chapters from a living book.”