COMPOSITION
Doug Bielmeier, Buffalo, New York (b.1979)
Doug Bielmeier creates commercial drone and experimental electronic music tailored for boutique audiences and media. His 2017 release of “Betty and the Sensory World” on Ravello Records explores his technique of Windowing, which deals with the manipulation of found sound files by the stretching and compression of time, sample rate, bit depth, and window size. The layering and temporal placement of these windows create larger sonic landscapes for the creation of new musical works divorced of the source context. Bielmeier’s music has been described as, “hypnotically static yet ever moving within itself,” and not having, “a feeling of minimalism per se so much as an organicity of internal presence that rivets the listener through a natural world kind of difference and sameness in dialectic balance,” by Grego Applegate Edwards of Classical-Modern Music Review. Also, The Midwest Record explains Bielmeier’s music as “drone work that's meant to shake you out of your shell of complacency.”
His love of combining technology and music was first cultivated while studying with composer Robert Carl (student of Iannis Xenakis) at the Hartt School of Music in the late 90s. In fact, Bielmeier’s music has been described as an extension of Xenakis’s early electroacoustic tape pieces. After going on to earn his masters in composition, Bielmeier shifted his attention to recording and popular music working as a staff engineer in Washington, DC and subsequently working as a freelance engineer in Nashville, TN. In Indianapolis, Bielmeier was a professor at the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI and designer/manager of the C.L.E.A.R. Laboratory: designed for the creation, mixing, and mastering of new electronic works. Currently, Bielmeier is a professor at Northeastern University, Boston, and lives near his family in Somerville MA.
An advocate and practitioner of electronic music, Bielmeier has written several pieces that have been performed internationally including: The Circuit Bender’s Ball in Nashville, TN; The Brooklyn Arts Gym in Brooklyn, NY; The Art of Digital Show in San Diego, CA; The Illinois International Film Festival in St. Charles, IL; The Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival in Gainesville, FL; June in Buffalo in Buffalo, NY, and The Muse Gallery, London, UK. The mediums of his works include stereo and multi-channel tape, video, and live-instrument with computer. Though a loyal student of acoustics and technology, Bielmeier searches for the meaning and expressive quality sometimes ignored in electronic music.
WORKS
Betty and The Sensory World (Live) - Lap Steel, Video, and EEM
"Costa Mesa Rocking Chair” was filmed in January 2017 in Costa Mesa, California over the course of an afternoon. The source material consists of a series of living stills. The music consists of the track “Rocking Chair” from the composer’s debut Experimental Electronic Music (EEM) release “Betty and The Sensory World,” and employs Bielmeier’s electro-compositional technique of Windowing. The practice of windowing in electronic composition deals with the manipulation of found sound files by the stretching and compression of time, sample rate, bit depth, and window size. The layering and temporal placement of these windows create larger sonic landscapes for the creation of new musical works divorced of the source context.
Costa Mesa Rocking Chair - Video and EEM
"Costa Mesa Rocking Chair” was filmed in January 2017 in Costa Mesa, California over the course of an afternoon. The source material consists of a series of living stills. The music consists of the track “Rocking Chair” from the composer’s debut Experimental Electronic Music (EEM) release “Betty and The Sensory World,” and employs Bielmeier’s electro-compositional technique of Windowing. The practice of windowing in electronic composition deals with the manipulation of found sound files by the stretching and compression of time, sample rate, bit depth, and window size. The layering and temporal placement of these windows create larger sonic landscapes for the creation of new musical works divorced of the source context.
St. Martin's Summer - Fixed Audio
Def] Noun- In English folkfore, a period of fine, clam weather, similar to an Indian summer, occurring in November.
Autumn and the iconic sounds, cognitive impressions and feelings associated with the season are what I hoped to capture in this digital concrete work. To create an autumnal atmosphere, I felt a need to take the listeners from the normal sonic world of "indooors" and transport them into a sonic realm that was more indicative of a random and less regular "outdoor" environment. I used randomized algorithms to sonically represent the warmth of a St. Martin's Summer and the randomness of the "outdoor" world.
ABAPS- Video and Fixed Audio
Slowly Sinking Slower - Video/Fixed Audio
The title of this work is an acronym for, A Brief
Analysis of the Projected Self. In fact, the work consists solely of X-rays of my chest. I was in Miami when these X-rays were made. I had fallen off a boat I had been working on in dry dock, and landed 10-15ft below on my side. As I sat in the hospital waiting room, it felt really odd seeing pictures, x-rays, of myself that didn't remind me of me; but were inexplicably me.
Unlike photographs and old home movies that can provide an objective view of the past, our memory by nature is subjective. We often remember only our happiest moments and discard the rest. This short film deals with how memories often obscure the perception of oneself, and that which is external. The images were recorded at Centralia, PA where an underground coal fire has been burning since 1962. Centralia is one of the least-populated municipalities in Pennsylvania.
The Thief of Always - Video/Fixed Audio/Cello
The Thief of Always deals with the universal disposition of dealing with, accepting, and understanding death. The Thief of Always is scored for a solo cellist, computer, and video. At approximately 13 minutes in duration, the work is divided into six adjoining sections that deal with a few of the many views and emotions involved with death. The computer aspect of the piece utilizes the Max/MSP environment to process the live performance of the cellist. The accompanying film component of the work contains both a visual and audio component to help reinforce these stages of death.
PERFORMANCES
(2017, September 21). Betty and The Sensory World (Live). Big Tent, Alumni Hall, Bloomington, IN.
(2017, August 27). Betty and The Sensory World (Live). Circuit Benders Ball, Nashville, TN.
(2012, February 25). ABAPS. The Dunes, Washington, DC
(2008, April 8). St. Martin's Summer. MC Composers in Concert, Montgomery College, Rockville, MD
(2007, March 5). The Blue Dress. Heidelberg College, Tiffin, OH
(2006, October 22). Slowly Sinking Slower. The Brooklyn Arts Gym, Brooklyn, NY
(2006, October 6). Slowly Sinking Slower. The Art of Digital Show, Lyceum Theatre Gallery San Diego, CA
(2006, September 16). Slowly Sinking Slower. 2006 Illinois Inter. Film Festival, Arcada Theater, St. Charles, IL
(2005, April 9). Slowly Sinking Slower. 14th Annual Florida Electroacoustic Music Fest., Gainesville, FL
(2005, May). Slowly Sinking Slower. The Muse Gallery, London, UK.
(2005, October 22). Slowly Sinking Slower. Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, UK.
(2005, November 3). The Thief of Always. Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
(2004, June 1). Manufactured Meditation. June in Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
(2004, September 16). Slowly Sinking Slower. Electronic Music Midwest, Romeoville, IL
(2004, November 12). Metallurgy. Imagine2 Festival, Memphis, TN