Search - Ethan Rose :: Oaks

"Last year this Portland Ore. tinkerer released Ceiling Songs, an enticing homemade album that used short sounds to create long ones. Flickering snippets of instruments overlap and accumulate to create restless but mellow collages that sound vaguely nostalgic." -- New York Times Ethan Rose's work reflects his interests in old technologies, new sounds, and the restless exploration of musical form. Drawing from his interests in musique concrète, chance operations, and American minimalism, Rose creates shifting sound environments that merge the old with the new. Much of his recent work has centered on instruments from eras long past, including music boxes, player pianos, carillons, and theater organs. However, he is interested in pulling new sounds and ideas out of these antiquated devices rather than treating them with a sense of preservation. By bringing a carefully detailed sense of arrangement to his music, Rose's pieces transport the close listener to a warm and unusual place.