This November Rulon will be alone, writing new music in a cabin located in the distant woods outside a small Michigan town during the height of deer hunting season. “I’ll be writing new music about The America Dream while rifle blasts ring through the countryside.” says Rulon. “I’ll get to celebrate Veteran’s Day in a rural town of America’s Heartland… I expect the setting to inspire my new music.”
The Institute for Sustainable Living, Art and Natural Design (ISLAND) awarded Rulon Brown an artist residency (dedicated time, housing and food to create new work). Rulon will use the occasion to further develop and record Restless – music and film inspired by the restless sleep of The American Dream. Religious freedom, guns, middle class, equality, public health and
E Pluribus Unum are some of the American dreams Rulon is already exploring.
/ Hear work in progress /
“The America Dream has inspired some of the world’s most intoxicating ideas,” notes Rulon, “and no matter how vivid, all dreams are just improvised synthesis. We make them up and then we wake up. But the ideas we cherish from our dreams inspire our best and worst actions. So I’m synthesizing sound dreams about America’s greatest export – our ideas of happiness, individuality, community and success.”
Rulon is making the music of Restless alone, creating the entire album using only a laptop, synthesized sound and sampled audio. “There is something romantically American about someone with an idea and hard work, building something new. That’s the story our meritocracy has been telling for hundreds of years. It would be un-American of me to start making Restless any other way than alone with my ideas and ingenuity.”
Though Restless is beginning as one man with a plan, it will become more than a solo artist concept album. Rulon is working with filmmakers to create silent movies (abstract and narrative film) that will accompany live concerts with other musicians and improvisers.
/ Support the making of Restless /
AMERICA! photo by Mike Dougherty