Chakpur from Redolent Spires by The Brothers Grimm

REDOLENT SPIRES (2012)
Guitar & Guqin 古琴
精霊の踊り (Dance Ghosts, Spirits)
ほら穴の踊ってる映り (Dance of Cavernous Reflections)
Rondeña, pa darte las gracias
空へ歌った踊り (Dance Voiced at the Sky)
Stochastic Contexture: Heads
風と常緑, その間、踊れ (Evergreen and Wind, Between Them, Dance)
Stochastic Contexture: Tails
Chakpur

Side B comprises of nine improvisations in four different tunings on guitar and guqin. Two of the tunings are traditional guqin modes (F Mj, Bb Mj), the other two are custom tunings (A Samant Sarang, Db Mj^7). The four Japanese titled pieces are brief and suggestive dances revealing the nature in which our live improvisations arise. For these tracks, the guqin is tuned in a traditional F Major mode. The Rondeña on our album combines floral melismatic textures of instrumental Rondeña with a cante middle section emulating Flamenco vocal tradition. Simple, elegant, nostalgic.

Stochastic Contexture is a two part ‘flip the coin’ chance piece on the subject of texture parameters; loud/soft, fast/slow, wide/narrow. The custom guqin tuning employed fits to Raga Samant Sarang tonic to A - a lovely early afternoon Hindustani Raag. Directions: use a coin to create texture cells for two players: Player 1 Tails. Player 2 Heads. First, flip to decide for which player to assign parameters. Flip for dynamic, then range, and density. Repeat this process for the other player. Flip to decide the transition at the end of the cell, will it be one or both players? If it is only one player, flip for which player is to execute the transition. By this process, four cells were created in which we explored raga samant sarang within our assigned textures. Ex. Cell A:: Player 1: soft, wide, slow:: Player 2: loud, wide, fast:: Transition: both.

Our final piece, Chakpur, is a reflection in a custom Db Major guqin tuning, accompanied by screw and hollow metal brush. On July 4th, 2011 Brian was fortunate to performed solo guqin improvisations for the Tibetan Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastary. He spent the rest of the day with them as they worked on their colorful sand mandalas. The buzzing sounds of their chakpur funnels were extremely conducive to meditation. Never before had he considered the centering, quieting properties a wash of metal noise could create. In attempt to reproduce that effect with “the poor man’s chakpur”, we used screws and hollow brushes.

For over a decade the Brothers Grimm have been performing string music together on Guitar, Cello, and Chinese string instruments. Separately, Brian studied Chinese music in Hong Kong and AJ studied Flamenco in Granada, Spain. They draw upon these experiences in addition to contemporary classical music forming flexible approaches in composition and improvisation practices.

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