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BIO
Glenn's passion for all things sound led him into work assisting in recording studios across the Midwest and eventually into owning and operating his own studio, Glenn Brown Productions. Glenn's reputation as an engineer and acoustician is well-known not only around his home base of Lansing, Michigan but across the country. His studio resume is long and distinguished. Due to his business, Glenn worked with and became friends with many musicians. The impetus for the Intergalactic Spiral sessions was born from these associations and friendships.
As Glenn explains, "I wanted to provide an environment for musicians,including myself, to express themselves freely. It felt like something that needed to be done."
In late June of 2007 Glenn assembled a cast of characters to bring the idea of a free-improvisational experimental jazz group to life. He ushered them into his studio, set-up mics, and pressed record. Three more sessions, with a revolving band of musicians, followed in October 2007, September 2009, and October 2009, accumulating over 6 hours of music.
The sessions were very loosely organized. Sometimes members would have sketches of music in mind. Most times the tape started rolling and the music started owing, freely and completely improvised. In a colorful vase, Glenn cut up small pieces of paper with "modifiers" on them. Phrases such as "be like water" or "use a wah-wah" or the most infamous (to the musicians) "play in the bathroom" would inuence each musician’s approach. (The bathroom guitar can be heard on track 4, Grandma's Attic.) The Intergalactic Suite, from Session 3 is one continuous group improvisation and was literally the "warm-up" piece to check if all the inputs and mics were working. Part I begins with sounds from the 1967 Buchla CM100 modular synthesizer. Imagine astronauts traveling to a distant galaxy aboard a futuristic starship. In Part II, they gaze in awe at the discovery of an enourmous Black Hole at the center. In Part III, the Black Hole ("Leo") undergoes rapid quantum changes due to their observations and begins devouring the galaxy.
Grandma's Attic from Session 2 started as an outline by guitarist Robert Tye. Imagine family members exploring dusty remnants and the echoes of forgotten memories in your grandmother's attic.
Clown Bicycle came from Session 1 and the mind drummer Randy Marsh, a concept he originally debuted with his defunct improvisational group The Flagrant Disregard. The rhythm of the opening section is pre-conceived but the notes are random. 500 Parsecs From Home from Session 4 is another piece that came to life without any discussion. The track opens with a Doppler image recording of the Sun made by SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) coverted into the range of human hearing. Synthesizers open the piece evoking the forlorn feeling of being light-years away from home. Mark Kieme's ute plays a beautifully improvised hopeful melody. The piece ends with sense of discovery and wonder.