Arnold Dreyblatt, (b. New York City, 1953) is a unique figure in contemporary music, known for his innovative approach to composition and sound. His music is often categorized within the minimalist and experimental traditions, but it stands out due to its distinctive use of resonance, overtones, and microtonality.
Dreyblatt has charted his own unique course in composition and music performance. He has invented a set of new and original instruments, performance techniques, and a system of tuning. One of the second generation of New York minimal composers, he studied music with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, and Alvin Lucier and media art with Woody and Steina Vasulka.
Dreyblatt's compositional process is deeply rooted in the exploration of the harmonic series. His music employs his own reduced version of just intonation, which involves tuning intervals only to pure ratios of the harmonic series, creating a a unique harmonic landscape which deviates from traditional systems. He builds and adapts instruments to suit his specific sonic needs in order to produce unique resonances and sonorities. This hands-on approach to instrument-making and tuning is central to his work, as it allows him to create a rich, layered sound that cannot be achieved with conventional instruments.
Dreyblatt's music is characterized by its use of drone, repetition, amplification and percussive elements, which combine to create a sense of both stasis and momentum. The rhythmic structures in his work are often complex, incorporating pulsating, driving patterns that give his compositions a kinetic energy. Often characterized as one of the more rock-oriented of American minimalists, Dreyblatt has cultivated a strong underground base of fans for his transcendental and ecstatic music as a solo artist and with his "Orchestra of Excited Strings".
His music has been performed by ensembles and individuals such as the Bang On A Can All-Stars, New York; Great Learning Orchestra, Stockholm; Pellegrini String Quartet, Freiburg; Crash Ensemble, Dublin; Horse Lords, Berlin; Robert Black, Hartford / N.Y; Jim O'Rourke Chicago / Tokyo; Ensemble Zinc & Copper, Berlin; Megafaun, Durham N.C. and many others.
Dreyblatt has recorded for such labels as Tzaddik, Hat Hut, Table of the Elements, Cantaloupe, Important, Choose, Drag City, Some Fine Legacy and Black Truffle. He has performed with and without his ensemble at the Whitney Museum, New York; the Maerz Music Festival, Berlin; the Angelika Festival, Bologna; The Lab; San Francisco; Berghain. Berlin; Meakusma Festival, Belgium; Le Guess Who Festival, Utrecht; St. John Sessions, London; Angelica Festival, Bologna; Festival Hessischer Musik, Darmstadt; Festival Klangspuren, Schwaz, Austria; Bang on A Can Festival MASS MoCA, Massachussetts; Märzmusik, Berlin and countless other festivals and concert venues in Europe and in North America.
Composer Rights Representation: GEMA Germany
Concert representation by Front Porch Productions / Regina Greene
