Kurt Vernon Roembke

This is a display the things I'm up to. I shoot and edit film and also compose music in a variety of styles.

[kurtvernonroembke]

Copula - Sculptures (Andrew Dubach) + Sounds (Kurt Roembke)

Wunderkammer Company                                    Fort Wayne, IN

Opening April 18th, 2015

[kurtvernonroembke]

This is just a test.  Ignore at all costs...........................................

[kurtvernonroembke]

This is a promo video that I edited and also co-directed for Indiana University/Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW.)

[kurtvernonroembke]

THIS IS NOT PART OF HUNTING FOR MUSHROOMS

This is a little short film I composed a few semesters ago to go along with my friend Logan Weber's music piece titled Pursuance.  I used several sources of creative commons footage I found online in an attempt to match the feel of the music.  It was an interesting creative exercise in editing and really taught me the power an editor possesses over the overall narrative and tone of a film.

[kurtvernonroembke]

These are the fifth and sixth movements of my piece Hunting for Mushrooms. They are programmatic pieces which means that they attempt to represent topics that are extra musical.  The first piece starts with a single tone which represents the bus stop. A second tone comes in from the left which represents a kid waiting at the stop. A third tone comes in from the right which is another kid. The kid on the left gradually makes his way to the right and offers the other a cigaret. As he takes it his pitch drops to a more perfect harmony with the other kid and the bus stop. Soon the bus comes and takes the kids away, leaving the bus stop to sit alone once again. The second piece is a bus ride. On the right is the bus and the chords on the left are passing cars. Every once in a while a tone will be added to the bus which represents a new passenger. After a while a car is forced by another into the bus making them crash. The tone sounding at the end is that of the only surviving passenger on the bus.

The video footage was greatly inspired by Jean Cocteau's technique of reversal footage. I shot it shortly after watching his film Orpheus from 1950 and also a short film he did shortly after which contained a large amount of reversal footage.

[kurtvernonroembke]

This is the fourth movement of my piece Hunting for Mushrooms.  The first part of the music is me improvising on a single take.  The second half (after the drone switches) is a more structured/metered variation of the first part.  The firework sound was a result of an accident I made in a synthesis patch.  The actors seen are my two friends Logan Weber and Keith Davis.

[kurtvernonroembke]

This is the third movement of my piece Hunting for Mushrooms. This is another area of IPFW that I thought was beautiful. Sometimes we get in the habit of appreciating beauty for just a few seconds and then moving on. This segment is intended to contradict that thought process.

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This is the second movement of my piece Hunting for Mushrooms.  I love looking at this bridge and thought you might like to also.

[kurtvernonroembke]

rmThis is the first movement of my piece called Hunting for Mushrooms. It is the only piece unaccompanied by video. I personally like to listen to it with my eyes closed.

[kurtvernonroembke]

Hunting for Mushrooms

Hunting for Mushrooms is a multimedia piece I composed to perform at Fort Wayne Fringe. It is minimalistic music inspired by John Cage. Instruments used range from recorders and guitar to spliced spoken word and whistling. It is meant to be performed by a TEAC tape deck and accompanied by a film projector and a chalkboard. I composed the film to represent a microcosm of my daily surroundings. The inspiration that shows through most is that of David Fincher and Jean Cocteau (specifically the reversal footage.) In the live performance I wrote poetry that fit the tone of the music and also tied in thematically to the video footage.  I will post some of these writings in later posts.

The posts that follow will be the video and audio of the piece

Hunting of Mushrooms.

I will post them at a weekly basis.