LOOSE GRIP « drewschnurr.com

Drew Schnurr is a composer, sound artist, and performer from Los Angeles whose work blurs traditional lines in music, media, and sound.

As a composer for media, Drew has produced music and sonic branding for numerous world brands and media conglomerates. He is also an active concert composer and sound artist with a diverse range of international commissions and exhibits.

Revered by his peers, industry professionals, and critics, his work has been called both “rare” and “remarkable.”

“This composer bends and stretches rules within his own aesthetic, weaving his musical ideas in harmonious waves that threaten to drown, yet gently tumble the listener forward with intrigue and anticipation.” -Adam Rosenthal review for Persee: Orchestrated Perception

VISUAL MEDIA PORTFOLIO
CONCERT PORTFOLIO
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Hyperventilations

for Piano with Four Hands [cat. sc26]

Hyperventilations of a Fire Dragon harnesses music from my early career as a performer in latin bands, jazz ensembles, funk bands, and rock and metal bands. The underlying fervency of these influences is felt throughout the work, leveraged by the power and agility of the piano, driving the performance often to the edge of playability. This piece initiates a compositional renaissance, a drilling down into the musical cores of “fire” that constitute the music of my youth. It comes from the gut—quite literally, was breathed into life. The melodic and rhythmic motives are all derived from vocal inflections (and hyperventilations) improvised, recorded, transcribed and re-composed by the composer.

DREW SCHNURR (2015)

Premiered by Vicki Ray and Aaron Kallay — Hear Now Festival, Los Angeles, May 2015.
Video performance by pianists Kookhee Hong and Minji Noh.

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watch HYPERVENTILATIONS

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LOOSE GRIP

11/07/10

Last night I had the opportunity to attended a press preview of the Iannis Xenakis exhibit at MOCA Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood (thanks to my good friend Michael Webb). Xenakis is considered to be an important composer and architect. One of Xenakis’ calling cards was his design of the Philips Pavillion for the Brussels World Fair in 1958.

The innovative pavilion was the exhibit/performance space for a large scale electro-acoustic/new media piece by composer Edgar Varese called Poem Electronique. The exhibit also featured a recorded work by Xenakis. The performances featured a light show and image projections on the ceiling of the pavilion to accompany the audio recordings played from an array of speakers mounted on the ceiling. Cutting edge stuff, especially for 1958. But back to the MOCA exhibit…