Pop music is prone to patterns.
Like it or not, we as attendees of the genre are more disposed to accept that which is familiar rather than following some warped experimentalist out on a knobby limb of his own design. As a result, most bands who become lauded for their ingenuity are–despite an undeniable talent for their craft–actually sticking pretty close to a pre-set group of rules that govern the music we hear.
None of this is to say that verses and choruses should be thrown by the wayside, nor that guitars should immediately make way for the klezmer, but finding a musician who operates with ambition and sophistication outside of our normal range of comfort is a rare thing. Portland composer Ethan Rose is just such a rarity.
With his gorgeous otherworldly soundscapes, Rose is an artist who has come to exist in that elusive space between expertise and ingenuity that breeds magnificent innovation. Employing a variety of electronic and anachronistic instruments, he creates precise minimalist opuses that stretch the linear definitions of what constitutes a song.
“My compositional strategy is pretty messy,” said Rose, “I do a lot of searching for sounds that I like, and then I end up editing [them] quite a bit. Often I can’t even remember how I got where I am. This has become part of my musical process.”
So far this process has yielded two albums and three limited-pressing EPs that have been entrancing listeners and gaining ever further acclaim despite their absence of lyrics, conventional instrumentation and anything that even remotely resembles a “single.” It is a testament to Rose’s craft that his songs can garner such passionate responses despite their peculiar presentation.
“I do bring in some linear approach to the compositions in the sense that I like to make things that move through different sound environments,” said Rose, “I think there is a sense of forward motion even though each space can seem somewhat static at times.”
These semi-linear songwriting methods has lent Rose an impressive fluidity in the venue of film scoring. To date, his minimalist electronics have provided the soundtrack for several short films and most recently gave a creeping emotional undercurrent to Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park.
“Gus Van Sant got in touch with me last fall to let me know that he was interested in using [Rose’s debut album] Ceiling Songs in his newest film,” said Rose, “Of course this was a humbling experience, as I’ve been a fan of his for quite some time … it’s exciting to see my music to be used in unexpected ways, and see someone else use it in their creative expression.”
Creative expression is a fluid term for Rose. He is currently exploring new methods of creating sound for his compositions. Perhaps his most interesting divergence from the realm of conventional electronic instrumentation has been his ample use of mechanical instruments such as antique player pianos.
Rose’s 2007 EP Singing Tower was a collection of songs written exclusively by manipulating the sounds produced by a carillon, an automated collection of church bells housed at Stanford University. Re-imagining such mechanical anachronisms has become a reoccurring theme in Rose’s music.
“I like automated instruments for a number of reasons,” said Rose, “their age, the mechanized sounds they make, the way they read the notes they’re fed, their antiquated imprecision. Interacting with these instruments has opened up new doors for me as a musician as they have taught me the value of accidents in music.”
Rose is currently deciding how these sounds will be represented on a follow-up to his 2007 album Spinning Pieces. He’s also busy ironing out the particulars of his long-anticipated installation piece at Portland’s Tilt Gallery.
Rose describes the work: “[It] is going to be a sound installation piece that I have been working on for quite sometime,” said Rose, “Essentially, it will be a Player Piano playing a continuous loop of music off of a paper roll. The sounds of the piano will be amplified and run through audio effects before being piped back into speakers in the same room. I’m really excited for this, because it will allow me to expose some of my musical process in a way that hasn’t been possible before.”
The Tilt Gallery exhibition should be something to behold, if for no other reason than it guarantees music fans with a completely different angle on how we interact with sonic art. The combination of re-imagined mechanics and free-floating song structures that constitute Rose’s music threatens to duck outside the definition of conventional song craft. In this particular instance, the result of such ambition isn’t a mess of overindulgence but rather a stunning redefinition of the musical boundaries we too often take for granted.
Ethan Rose
Sound InstallationTilt Gallery Starting March 6Thurs.-12 p.m. to 5 p.m.Sat.-12 p.m. to 5 p.m.