Doctor Body is a place for musical experimentation, boundary exploration, and live performance expression.
It’s an ongoing musical collaboration between myself and Alison Wilder. Key to the process is this: everything we produce is handled/managed by each of us multiple times.
The result is always something neither one of us would (or could) create. Eventually we find our way to an agreeable place and allow each other space to contribute what we wish. And the more we do it, the more comfortable we become in what is often an uncertain journey.
… or said in a very different way …
“Doctor Body will not help you to relive the warm glow of youthful love, or to remember how you danced on your wedding night, or be the soundtrack to your breakup.”
Composer Greg Wilder curates an evening of contemporary music from 1 to the 102 speakers that make up the Meyer Sound Constellation at National Sawdust. Featuring seminal works by Frank Zappa and Karlheinz Stockhausen in their original format, the evening explores immersive audio and the creative opportunities it affords in a way that can only experienced first hand in the space itself.
In the past music was created to fit the instruments and spaces at hand. Intimate rooms with low ceilings could be filled with the sound of a single bard celebrating the achievements of warriors while large chapels required groups of voices to slow down and draw out pious praises, holding on to open vowel sounds so the long reverberation times could transform simple melodies into sacred harmonies. Today we can shape our own acoustic spaces and create our own instruments – virtually.
Join us in Brooklyn on June 11th for an experience like no other. Contact National Sawdust for tickets.
Vampyr: Live! is a live music and film experience that pairs music and arrangements from Blix Byrd and myself with Carl Theodor Dreyer’s groundbreaking 1932 film, “Vampyr”.
The concept involves integrating dark, edgy songwriting with my human/machine collaborative works for piano and computer. The aim is to develop an evening of adventurous and theatrical musical performances that tightly synchronizes with the natural drama of the film.
How It Started
We were first introduced to Carl Theodor Dreyer’s films in early 2019 and immediately went on the hunt for more. Before we had even finished our first screening of Vampyr (1932), we knew we had discovered our next musical project…
Vampyr (1932) original screenplay excerpt
Although Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr is one of the earliest films to include recorded sound, it contains minimal dialog and relies heavily on the rich imagery and extended mood-setting techniques common to silent films of the era.
After becoming more familiar with Vampyr and its historical context, we got our hands on Dreyer’s original screenplay (excerpted above) and sketched out our interpretation of the dramatic form:
Since then we’ve been extremely busy in our respective studios developing a wide range of sound concepts and show ideas. After months of testing, the range of options has narrowed and the shape (and sound!) of the show is coming into focus.
Current Status
Before the pandemic we had tracked and mixed ~35 minutes of music along with an additional 20 minutes of demo tracks. We’ve now picked things up once again and are working toward our first “test” shows during the summer of 2022. Check out the journal entries below to track the continued progress…
