Roarke Menzies

New York City-based artist and composer

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New Release: Roarke Menzies - “Apparatus Revisited”

The third solo release from New York City-based composer and sound artist Roarke Menzies, Apparatus Revisited offers alternate readings and otherwise unheard moments culled from the recording sessions for Corporeal, Menzies’s previous full-length. Apparatus Revisited is a curious kind of remix album that peels away densely layered folds to reveal hollowed depths, spacious cavities, and carefully paced interior movements.

Listen here: http://bit.ly/2a7OjCA

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Roarke Menzies - “Corporeal” Out now on cassette and digital

Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/1orgjWD iTunes: https://itun.es/us/dstrbb Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1RGEA6V

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“Corporeal” Album Release at Sunnyvale, Brooklyn, April 7, 2016 Photos by Joshua Simpson

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For Vinyl-Covered Stages

During the creation of and preparation for a concert dance performance, weeks and months are spent in a rehearsal studio crafting, honing and repeating movement phrases. Meanwhile, in another room, layers of cloth, measured to fit human limbs and bodies, are cut and stitched together into costumes, another repetitive practice. Finally, on the days leading up to the performance, lighting, wardrobe, music and all the other stage elements are brought together into the same room, bodies filled with anticipation. The immeasurable amounts of labor, focus, doubt, frustration, glee, trial and error empty out onto the stage. Then the performance is over, and everyone goes home.

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The Rumpus Interview with Roarke Menzies:

Since you’ve been composing music for years for theater performances, games, films, television, and art installations, I was surprised to learn this was your debut album. What made you decide that an album was the project to do now? RM: This ‘debut’ is sort of a long time coming, as some of my close friends or family can attest. Over the years I’ve had many different solo projects of many different kinds and a few times have come quite close to finishing albums… In the process of digging through recent recordings, I was just struck by how much intriguing material was sitting there unused from various projects or spontaneous recording sessions… Eventually, I said, “Ok, this isn’t just a portfolio. This is its own entity and I want to do something special with it.”

Read more here.

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BBC Radio 3 just aired Roarke Menzies’s “Drones for La Monte Young” in a recent program about Young’s epic 5-hour opus, “The Well-Tuned Piano.”  The broadcast was part of Radio 3’s New Year New Music series, “exploring iconic masterpieces, avant-garde experiments and the next generation of talent.”  Also included in the program are luminaries Pauline Oliveros, Aphex Twin, The Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Anton Webern and others.

Listen here.

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There’s something singularly exciting to me about building a sound performance from scratch that way in front of an audience. It’s one of my favorite things.

The Rumpus Interview with Roarke Menzies.

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Roarke Menzies’ Shapes record release at Bunna Cafe in Brooklyn on October 10, 2015.  Performers included Paul Rome, Katie Mullins, David Kammerer and SK Kakraba (Awesome Tapes From Africa).

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Out Now: Roarke Menzies’ - “Shapes”

iTunes: https://itun.es/us/sVI59 Amazon: http://amzn.to/1PdqzNh Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/1JKnaO3

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This Week In New York talks city listening and musical influences with Roarke Menzies:

“I’m often mesmerized and perplexed by the city’s sound culture… I feel like my influences are all over the place — Arvo Pärt, Portishead, Fluxus, Sam Cooke’s gospel recordings with the Soul Stirrers, Deerhunter’s Cryptograms, Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s soundtrack for Akira, Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, the choral works of Morten Lauridsen, the rugged lands of early RZA, the pop masterpieces of Max Martin, the subterranean cityscapes of Burial, the codeine-soaked tapescapes of DJ Screw, the Courvoisier-soaked jiggyscapes of early 2000s Neptunes, etc. I’m a huge music appreciator.”

Read More…

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Volume 1 Brooklyn talks ‘sonic exploration’ with Roarke Menzies:

“This is music that asks listeners to consider how and where they place their focus and attention. I think there’s something to be said for observing how you observe.”

Read More…

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Roarke Menzies - “Drones for La Monte Young” From his debut album, “Shapes.” More info at: roarkemenzies.com/shapes

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Philadelphia and Other Stories By Paul Rome & Roarke Menzies

February 11-21, 2015 Wednesdays through Saturdays @ 8pm Walkerspace 46 Walker Street philadelphiaandotherstories.com

“Wonderfully original... A realm of modern mythmaking.” — The Rumpus

“Menzies' electronic compositions... along with Rome's measured sentences, captivate and immerse the auditory cortex... and the catharsis feels so good.” — Hyperallergic

Following a critically acclaimed, sold-out run at The Bushwick Starr, writer Paul Rome and composer Roarke Menzies present Philadelphia and Other Stories at Walkerspace in Manhattan.

In this new, radio-inspired stage work, Rome and Menzies pair new works of literary fiction with original music and sound. The stories are based on autobiography, transcriptions of conversations and recorded interviews. But the facts are blurred, the characters recast, the way a formative memory might fade, warp or become imbued with heightened significance. Philadelphia and Other Stories reflects on the curious (and vain) practice of mythologizing one’s own life, casting one’s own biopic, the acts of replay, revision and reenactment.

Created by Paul Rome & Roarke Menzies Produced by Chip Rodgers Directed by Mark Jaynes Performed by Paul Rome, Roarke Menzies, Katie Schottland, David Kammerer & Katie Mullins Lighting Design by Cecilia Durbin Assistant Director: Rachel Levens

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Philadelphia and Other Stories By Paul Rome & Roarke Menzies

December 18 - 20, 2014 @ 8pm The Bushwick Starr 207 Starr Street, Brooklyn thebushwickstarr.org

Writer Paul Rome and composer Roarke Menzies present their latest stage work pairing literary fiction with music and sound. The centerpiece of this latest offering recounts a spur-of-the-moment day trip to the City of Brotherly Love.

Taking cues from audio storytellers like Ira Glass, Jad Abumrad and Garrison Keillor, as well as innovative monologists like Joe Frank and Spalding Gray, Rome and Menzies draw equally on the traditions of radio drama, literary readings, performance art and theatre in this intimate new stage work.

Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/940873

Text by Paul Rome Music by Roarke Menzies Directed by Mark Jaynes Performed by Paul Rome, Roarke Menzies, Katie Schottland Additional Songs Written & Performed by David Kammerer & Katie Mullins  Lighting Designer: Cecilia Durbin Dramaturg & Production Assistant: by Rachel Levens