PATRICK
GRANT - According to the Village Voice's Kyle Gann, Grant's distinct sound has "...a driving and rather harsh energy
redolent of rock, as well as a clean sense of melodicism ... the music's momentum
and intricate cross-rhythms rarely let up, making the occasional infectious tunes
that emerge all the more beautiful for surprise."
"... a modern electronic
master...(he) is a totally wired contemporary musician who combines live performance
with cutting edge technology,"
writes The New Music Connoisseur about this emerging American composer."
“COMPLEXO SISTEMA de Enfraquecimento da Sensibilidade” ...sets up a very interesting interplay between the fragmentary, unwoven, and apocalyptic script of Ruy Filho and the magnificently composed musical score by the North American artist Patrick Grant, who came especially to Brazil to realize this work. A top artist of the USA, author of soundtracks for film and theater, composer of music for the spectacles of Gerald Thomas and many others, it’s absurd that Grant was stupidly ignored by the press during his trip to Brazil to make this sonorous score of “Complexo Sistema.” This is the face of the local press. That’s what we’ve come to! Grant’s work is stupendous and is already known by its contribution to (Thomas’)...“Queen Liar.” In “Complexo Sistema” it establishes an uninterrupted dialogue of words and action, taking the risky games that Ruy Filho’s actors face to extreme intensities. With the dialogue between the music and sound design of Grant on one hand, and the parade of repressive and violent situations conceived by Ruy on the other, the piece could not be stronger. Here, text and soundtrack combine as a unified and inseparable whole in service of the storytelling. The result is powerful.
Alberto Guzik, theater critic
São Paulo, January 23, 2009
Portuguese original at http://os.dias.e.as.horas.zip.net/
Patrick Grant is a composer/performer living in New York City and creates music for a wide range of media. A native of Detroit, MI (aka Motown), he moved to NYC in the mid-80s where he studied at the Juilliard School, worked on the production team for composer John Cage, and produced his first recordings at the studios of Philip Glass. Interest in world music brought him to Bali three times to study the gamelan which has since manifested itself in his work through the use of alternative tunings and pieces requiring multiple keyboards. He founded his production company, sTRANGEmUSIC, in 1998 and has since produced numerous recordings and concerts of his and other artists’ work. He has created scores for theatrical visionaries Gerald Thomas, Robert Wilson, the Living Theatre, and music for installations at the Louvre and the musée du Quai Branly in Paris. His music has been applied visually through seven collaborations with the artist Kehinde Wiley, scores for feature documentaries, and music tech seminars each semester at the NYU Film School. Within the last year his music has been performed extensively by theater troupes in Brazil, appearing in the major cities and international festivals there. In 2009, with radio producer Jocelyn Gonzales, he created the MMiX Festival of Interactive Music Technology at NYC’s Theaterlab, an event co-sponsored by Ableton and Cycling ’74. In December 2009, he music directed the European premiere of his electronic realization of the Morton Feldman/Samuel Beckett opera “Neither” in Vienna. In 2010, Grant returned to Europe and Brazil for new works in concert, theater, and multimedia and created H2Opus: Fluid Soundscapes by Multiple Composers for Make Music New York 2010. Grant also produces content for the new music blog The MMiXdown and is a co-director of Composers Concordance Records.
He has created musical scores for theatrical visionaries Gerald Thomas (Bate Man, Rainha Mentira/Queen Liar), The Living Theatre - six theater pieces, a one-act "opera" and music for the documentaries Resist! and Another Glorious Day, Robert Wilson (three installations and a theatrical presentation with artist Andrey Bartenev at The Watermill Center), Cia. Antro Exposto in Brazil (Complexo Sistema), The Louvre Museum (an installation for the Musée du Quai Branly), the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble (a tone poem after a scenario by Artaud),and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco (a piece called "the strangest and most ravishing dance of the year" by the SF Chronicle and nominated for Best Dance Score of 2003 by the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards). His work often involves elements found in the natural and physical sciences (Genome: The Autobiography of a Species).
He has been commissioned by the CUNY Graduate Center (BIG BANG), jointly by the artist Kehinde Wiley (for soprano Shequida), Deitch Projects (Rumors of War), and The Columbus Museum of Art (Historical Black Music Rollercoaster), and the Modern Museum of Fort Worth.
His works have been performed at the Bang on a Can Annual Marathon, MATA - Music at the Anthology, by Gamelan Son of Lion, The CUNY Graduate Center's Science & the Arts series, The Forum Freies Theater in Germany, and by The Young Eight (hIP-hOP eXPERIENCE IV).
As
a presenter, Mr. Grant has produced scores of new music concerts in the alternative
spaces of New York City, in art galleries, theaters, factory lofts and clubs,
since 1988, most recently with the One-Two-Three-GO!
series.
He is founder and artistic director of Strange
Music Inc., an organization dedicated to releasing recordings and presenting
compelling new work with performances and installations in New York and around
the world. He formed his own ensemble, Patrick Grant Group, in 1998.
Born
in Detroit, MI, Grant studied at Wayne
State University and at The Juilliard
School, and has been a student of gamelan and the Indonesian performing arts
during three residencies in Bali.