Experimental Music
Music not played by traditional musicians, or created in unique ways.
The Thai Elephant Orchestra and Da Hiphop Raskalz get their own devoted webpages.
with children
with non-human animals
The People's Choice (with Komar & Melamid)
Marsh Fugue
Brainwave (EEG) music
Music with unconventional collaborators: children
Matarile
I worked with kids from West Harlem on Matarile in 1991 – when you could hear gun shots every night in their neighborhood. Tthese sweet little kids, 5-9 years old plus one 13 year old, could identify different guns by sound and imitate them. Released on the CD Smut.
Matarile
Matarile performers: Wilson Arias - Rap, Jose R. Cespedes - Conga, Tamboura; Rafael de los Santos - Piano;Willie Hernandez - Bass, Guitar; Deyamira de Luna, Marielys Divanne, Fioremi Felix , Yokaira Feliz, Ana Maria Gonzalez, Wilson Hidalgo,Merlyn Jaime, Bianel Ramos, Dolly Rosario, Victor Rosea, Julio Sanchez, Alejandro Taveras, Rocio Taveras -Vocals.
Aliens Took My Mom
2000
Tangerine Awkestra
The flutist and school teacher Katie Down and I coached her class in Fort Green, Brooklyn of kids ranging from 2-9 years old. They made an Avant Garde group, the Tangerine Awkestra (2000). The piece is mostly a story they made up of space aliens invading New York.
Aliens invade from Jupiter
Spaceships on the Empire State Building
Volcanoes explode at the center of the earth
The aliens blow up Antartica
Minuet for recorder & violin
Aliens took my Mom
The navy bombs them
Twelve bar blues
All of the humans blow up
The aliens get nuclear bugs in them and pop
The aliens blow up Part II
Everything is soft
Yol Ku: Inside the Sun
To be released infall 2008, Alan Kushan, Rory Young, andI coached high school children from San Mateo Ixtatan, a Mayan community in Guatemala to compose music using the traditional giant marimbas. Except for the hip hop piece in Chuj, these use games with different colored tapes on the marimba keys.
Oracion de la Cruz
El Bello Quetzal
Xan Matin Mix
Casamiento de los Apaches
Noble Cazador
Fiesta de los Mayas
Music with unconventional collaborators: the People's will
The People's Choice Music
1997
with Komar & Melamid
From a poll of American musical preferences, lyrics by Nina Mankin, music by Dave Soldier. Komar and Melamid were making paintings determined by national surveys. I wrote the survey and wrote the Most Wanted Song and the Most Unwanted Song. Read the lyrics. See portions of the survey, or buy the CD and see them all displayed.
The most wanted song
The most unwanted song
Performers: Ada Dyer, Dina Emerson, Ronnie Gent- Vocals; Christine Bard - Percussion; Vernon Reid - Guitar; Andy Snitzer - Saxophone; David Soldier - Banjo, Violin, Drums, Keyboards, Liner Notes; Rory Young - Drums, Engineer; Lisa Haney - Cello; Norman Yamada - Conductor; David Watson - Bagpipes; Yuri Lemeshev - Accordion; Dave Grego - Tuba; Mary Bopp - Organ; Vitaly Komar & Alex Melamid- Bass drum
download the survey
Music with unconventional collaborators: non-human animals
Zebrafinches
Similiar to the Thai Elephant Orchestra, I found that songbirds will also play instruments if they are provided with something ergonomic to trigger and if they like the sound - they like brass instruments and hate distorted rock guitar. They will play hundreds of times a day without training or other reward than hearing the music.
Zebra finches playing brass samples
playing big band samples
and gamelan samples
Pygmy chipmanzees
Gordon Shaw and I started to coach pygmy chimps, and I am sure that they would enjoy playing instruments given the opportunity and plenty of effort. We didn't have a chance to record what they did play, which was mostly waving handbells. Gordon passed away after a short illness in April, 2005. He was the promulgator of "the Mozart effect", which uses music to help children with abstract thinking. Please see his MIND Institute.
Marsh Fugue (2004)
A fugue made from crickets, fish, frogs, and nightbirds in the swamp. It's the last track of "Inspect for Damaged Gods", left unmentioned in the cover notes.
Marsh Fugue (2004)
Brainwave music (2008)
This collaboration with Brad Garton uses brainwaves (EEGs or electroencephlograms) to control music in real time: there are no overdubs.
We call the pieces either "unconscious music", where one composes without being aware of the music , or "prosthetic music" in which you attempt to control your brainwaves (e.g., closing your eyes is a classic way to control alpha waves).
Trio for Brainwaves and Percussion
Features Valerie Naranjo (gyil, an African mallet instrument), Barry Olsen (hand drums), Benny Koonyevsky (cajon, a musical box), each triggering brainwaves: this is all in real time with no overdubbing.
Part 1: the players move their hands to play the instruments, but don't actually touch them, but the cortical brainwaves trigger the notes
Part 2: the play their instruments at a range of tempos, and the EEG signals trigger sounds in part depending on their activity
Part 3: the players try to sync up with Benny's beats from his brainwaves
Part 4: the players imagine playing, and try to move their hands while sitting on them
an article in the Scientist about a live performance of this piece at CUNY
Alpha wave mix
"prosthetic" solo where I try to control samples from my string quartet by producing alpha waves from the back of my cortex: it's like playing the piano with boxing gloves
Reading Stephen Colbert
"unconscious" music that I'm producing by
reading a page from Colbert's book and listening to what happens when I laugh
Duo for sensory and motor cortex
"prosthetic" music where I move my hands or pinch myself and read brainwaves from the side of the cortex
a video interview on Scienceline with Dave at the Brooklyn Academy of Music about this project
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