Tag Archives: 古筝

11/11 | BC Grimm (prepared guzheng) , Def Sonic, & Hunter Nicholson @ Common Sage! (Madison, WI)

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Check out this incredible poster art by @assortedpsychedelia Andrieu Todd!!! 😍😍😍

Saturday, 11/11/2023
Common Sage
934 Drake Street

BC Grimm
Def Sonic
Hunter Nicholson

Potluck @ 7pm
Music @ 8pm
$10 suggested donation

I’ll be performing the title track from my 2014 album of experimental zither music called, “The Ideating Knell”. It’s a long-form piece for a ‘prepared guzheng’ Chinese zither, exploring all of the non-traditional sounds you can make on the instrument. In the spirit of John Cage’s groundbreaking solo prepared piano works, this music prepares the guzheng with shell necklaces, clay pottery tools, mixing bowls, small gongs, bows, dulcimer hammers, clay teapot shards, and more! I would describe the 21-string guzheng with its spine of bridges and large coffin-like resonating chamber as a “cathedral of sounds”.

I’m very excited for this opportunity to perform at Common Sage, hosted by Tim Russell and Liz Sexe! An experimental musician and dancer couple who I’ve known nearly the entire time I’ve been in Madison! What they are cultivating with these monthly experimental house shows and potlucks is in kindred spirit to what Ka Baird used to do in Madison before she moved to NYC. It is helping to rekindle a sense of community for the experimental and improvised community here in Madison. It’s something that’s been missing in our scene for years now, and I’m so glad it’s back!! It’s been really hard for Tim and me to schedule a month where I’d be around and available to perform, and we finally got one! Hope to see some of you tomorrow night!

I’ll be taking the new sounds that I’ve been creating for this updated version of the piece and working on a new album of prepared guzheng music for another label soon! More details to come in the coming months, but I’m very excited to release a new album of prepared guzheng sounds on the 10th anniversary of the original release of this concept!

From a performance of the piece at an outdoor festival back in 2014, photo by Audre Rae Photography
Picture of the setup from a recent performance of The Ideating Knell in Cleveland, OH at the Cleveland Institute of Art

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“The Ideating Knell” composition for “prepared guzheng zither” ↘︎

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“The Ideating Knell” (2014) full album on Signal Dreams label ↘︎

6/17 | New Album THE IDEATING KNELL for sale on Signal Dreams

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‘The Ideating Knell’ by BC Grimm is now available on Signal Dreams!

Limited Edition CD
16 tracks 70 mins $7
Order your copy today!

ᄼᄽᄿᄽᄿᄼᄾᄼᄽᄾᄿᄽᄿᄼᄾᄼᄽᄾᄿ
A few words on the album from Signal Dreams

“  Madison, WI-based avant-jazz explorer BC Grimm is well known locally not just for his phenomenal cello work in live collaborations with artists like Julian Lynch, Spires That In The Sunset Rise, and the mighty Db Pedersen (to name just a few), but also the mind-blowing improvisational chops he showcases with his brother A.J. Grimm in cello-guitar duo The Brothers Grimm and his worldly and detailed production work as Brain Grimmer. More recently, Grimm’s work has been shifting focus toward his intriguing work with two different Chinese zithers, Guqin and Guzheng. We’re extremely proud to present ‘The Ideating Knell,’ a staggering album that combines Grimm’s deep experimentation with the zithers with his love of detailed processing. Honestly, nothing we could say about it could match the beautiful clarity of this statement from BC Grimm himself:

“‘The Ideating Knell’ is an experimental acoustic album of compositions for two ancient Chinese zithers, Guqin 古琴 & Guzheng 古筝. This record includes 6 ‘doppler phase’ pieces for guqin, emulating tape composition techniques to create the movement of sound to/from the vanishing point on the horizon line to/from the listener’s ears. There are 6 pieces for prepared guzheng using: dulcimer hammers, cajon brushes, chopsticks, mate straw, metal bowls, broken teaware, clay sculpting tools, snare wires, & seashell strands. 3 pieces revisit the title track composition from BCG’s 2011 solo guqin album, “Flock Migrates Over The Pines”: with re-recorded, reconstructed versions in two custom tunings, and a new variation on the theme in a traditional tuning. The actual notes in the composition’s score visually depict various forms & shapes of birds taking off into flight, or in formation during flight. Also, specially devised for this project is a new ‘Pentatemperment’ tuning system on guqin, which splits the octave into 5 equal steps, instead of 12 [ low to high: C-40c D0c E+40c G-20c A+20c C-40c D0c ]. Guzheng 古筝, a 21 string bridged zither spanning 4 octaves, and Guqin 古琴, a 7 string fretless zither spanning 1 octave, tune to pentatonic scales. Both instruments share a culturally important performance history stretching back about 2,500 years to the Warring States period.”

Artwork by Nathaniel Ritter. Price is postage paid in the US. Please see shipping rates for Canada/World.  “

This Signal Dreams batch also includes: Troy Schafer ‘Untitled No. 1‘ & Derek Rogers ‘Prevais‘.

∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ ∵∴ 

5/01 | BC Grimm + Ben Willis + Betsy Soukup @ Canterbury House

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Thurs, 5/01  $5  8pm @ Canterbury House (Ann Arbor, MI)

BC Grimm / Ben Willis / Betsy Soukup

I will be performing new works from my album The Ideating Knell, which is to be released on Signal Dreams records this May.  The 16 track album, The Ideating Knell, is an experimental acoustic album of compositions for two ancient Chinese zithers, Guqin 古琴 & Guzheng 古筝. This record includes 6 ‘doppler phase’ pieces for guqin, emulating tape composition techniques to create the movement of sound to/from the vanishing point on the horizon line to/from the listener’s ears. There are 6 pieces for prepared guzheng using: dulcimer hammers, cajon brushes, metal chopsticks, mate straw, metal bowls, broken teaware, clay sculpting tools, snare wires, & seashell strands. 3 pieces revisit the title track composition from my 2011 solo guqin album, “Flock Migrates Over The Pines”: with re-recorded, reconstructed versions in two custom tunings, and a new variation on the theme in a traditional tuning.

This show in Ann Arbor, Michigan will be extra special.  I’ll be playing with some low-end friends who’ve collided together from different music circles of my past.  Double Bassist, Ben Willis, as you all well know is one of my best buds & collaborators from the Madison music scene, in groups such as Watercourse Quartet & Lovely Socialite Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps.  Betsy Soukup, also a bassist, is one of my good friends from music school at Butler University, in Indianapolis.  I can’t wait to hang, catch up, and make some low pitched music with these fine people at Canterbury House!

~ BCG

》》Have a listen to some of Ben & Betsy’s material》》

: stay tuned for the upcoming announcements of The Ideating Knell release on Signal Dreams!!

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2/8 | Traditional Chinese Music for Lunar New Year

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BC Grimm’s 高胡 (gaohu – fiddle) & 琵琶 (pipa – lute) | photo Diwas Sherchan

Traditional Chinese Music for

Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration

Sat, 2/8 | 6:00 – 8:00pm @ Imperial Gardens East

4214 E Washington Ave, Madison, WI 53704

This Saturday, I will be performing on three Chinese instruments from 6-8pm to celebrate the Lunar New Year at Imperial Gardens restaurant on the East Side of Madison.  Emay, our group leader, performs on 古筝 (guzheng – 21 string zither), Kyle plays flute & guzheng, and I will strum 古琴 (guqin – 7 string zither), 琵琶 (pipa – 4 string lute), & 高胡 (gaohu – 2 string fiddle).  We’ll perform all traditional Chinese music, so if your curious to hear what that sounds like – stop on by, eat some tasty Chinese cuisine & celebrate with us!

新年快樂！ ~ BCG

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Head stocks of BCG’s 琵琶 pipa & 高胡 gaohu | photo Diwas Sherchan

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02/02/14 | Emay Music troupe backstage before their performance at the UW-Platteville Confucius Institute Lunar New Year Celebration!