LOST SOULS AND SPIDERMAN « 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
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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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LOST SOULS AND SPIDERMAN

02/25/06

Last night was one of those unique “Downtown LA” evenings. Sometimes I feel like I live in a supercollider, where molecules of different types are smashed into one another in order to better understand their makeup. They were filming Spiderman 3 in front of my building last night. When I say “they,” I am referring to about 150 cast and crew members, along with four huge cranes, hundreds of “props,” and enough lights to illuminate a small planetery moon. This of course was occurring on Main Street, one block away from skid row where the homeless were bedding down in their cardboard shelters for the night. Many residents in my building were paid a monetary stipend for the inconvenience of the shoot. I wonder if anyone thought to pay the street dwellers for their inconvenience.

Anyway, the night brought with it the usual personal melancholy, and I needed to get around some people, so I decided to go out the front of my building and survey the happenings. Television/Film shoots of this size happen frequently in my neighborhood due to the unique architecture of the buildings. The shoots tend become neighborhood gatherings, as everyone comes out to see the “machine” in action. I confess I did not find much amusement from watching the film shoot (I’ll wait for the DVD.), but did appreciate seeing familiar faces from the neighborhood, many of whom I have known for three years now. There is comfort in community.

After waiting around on the street for about forty minutes to hear someone say “action,” and then seeing a guy wearing red spandex attached to two steel cables flung into a taxi cab, I decided to go to one of my new favorite spots in the neighborhood, the “Lost Souls Cafe” (http://lostsouls.com), located at the end of an alley off of fourth street.

The cafe has nice atmosphere, and potential to be a great meeting place for creative community. I am really into the mission of the cafe, and it has just the right kind of feeling. I’ve been looking for a new local venue to do low key improv performances, so maybe one of these nights I’ll bring my bass instead of my book…that is if the set police let me cross through the next film shoot.

Drew Schnurr

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