Aaron Mendez: Composer, Producer (Music & Film) || Washwasha Quartet

FIRE UNDER THE SNOW: WORLD PREMIERE

2008 Tribeca Film Festival: APR 23 - MAY 4 in New York City

Thurs April 24	8:30pm	Village East Cinemas	2nd Ave & 12th St.	Map
Sat April 26	3:45pm	AMC Village VII	3rd Ave & 11th St.	Map
Tues April 29	8:00pm	AMC Village VII	3rd Ave & 11th St.
Sat May 3	3:30pm	AMC Village VII	3rd Ave & 11th St.
Sun May 4	8:30pm	Village East Cinemas	2nd Ave & 12th St.

→	April 12	Tickets go on sale for American Express Cardmembers
→	April 18	Tickets go on sale for downtown residents (with proof of zipcode below Canal St.)
→	April 19	Tickets go on sale to the general public

Ven. Palden Gyatso will come from Dharamsala, India to attend all screenings.

What kind of film is this?
It is about human and civil rights, history, politics, and torture - all viewed through the prism of one remarkable life, that of the Venerable Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, former political prisoner and current human rights advocate.

→	Fire Under the Snow Official Site
→	Tribeca Film Festival Guide: Fire Under the Snow
→	YouTube: Annie Lennox interviews Palden Gyatso in 1998
→	New York Times: On My Mind; You Are Palden Gyatso (1995)
→	Amazon.com: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk by Palden Gyatso (Author), The Dalai Lama (Foreword), Tsering Shakya (Translator)

End in Sight (March)

Oh my, Fire Under the Snow, a landmark documentary film three years in the making...is about to wrap!

I spent the long Easter weekend in a whirlwind of last minute activity: all subtitles copy edited; three "electro-orchestral" cues composed, of which two will be heard in the film trailer; and an unsourceable news report voiceover re-written, performed and recorded.

The debut is coming very soon, at the Tribeca Film Festival here in New York City during April. Screening dates and locations TBA.

Washwasha (whisper) Quartet (February)

Washwasha debuted at the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn on 10 February 2008, in quartet configuration:

David Cohen: oud and classical guitar
Jeff Hudgins: clarinet and saxophones
Timothy Quigley: darbuka, bendir, shakers, etc.
Aaron Mendez: bass

Stream our syncretic NYC/French/North-African sounds right here...a recording of the actual event:
StreamWashwasha.m3u
(it will pop into iTunes, or any default MP3 player)

Compositions by Anouar Brahem, Erik Satie, Aaron Mendez and David Cohen.

Brooklynite Aaron Mendez works as a composer, mix/remix engineer, text editor, and user interface builder of RIAs (Rich Internet Applications).

Film highlights include working as Associate Producer for the 2008 documentary Fire Under the Snow; working as Composer for the 2007 documentary Tangier Treehouse; and working as Sound Designer for the 2004 documentary film Arakimentari.

Aaron attended New York City's Stuyvesant High School and graduated with honors from Boston's New England Conservatory of Music. His jazz compositions received awards from NEC, the Jazz Composers Alliance/Julius Hemphill Composition Award, and the John Lennon Songwriting Competition. Aaron has produced and performed full-length electro-acoustic soundtracks for Off-Broadway plays, including Shakespeare's King Lear and Macbeth.

Aaron has been a member of Screen Actor's Guild since 1979, currently serves on the Advisory Board of The African Film Workshop, and formerly served on the Advisory Board of The Creative Music Foundation of Woodstock, NY. Other interests include anthropology, the ebb and flow of civilizations, Dharmic traditions, esoteric music theories, Japanese language and culture, Yoga, "green" technologies, haute cuisine, and fine loose teas.

Aaron's daylight hours are spent working with a superb crew of designers and developers in the User Experience Group of the new Thomson-Reuters, but his most important occupation - by far - is that of Dad!

Aaron Mendez: Composer, Producer
IRREPRESSIBLE CREATIVITY SINCE 1969

Xmas in Tokyo (December)

Christmas morning we went to the Tsukiji Market and had fish fresh out of the sea for breakfast. We then enjoyed three kabuki plays in five hours at the Kabuki-za. It was a nice way to bid adieu to a not very nice year.

Next up, the holiday that really matters in Japan:
New Year's Day.

Farewell 2007, and good riddance. Let's all work together to make 2008 a much better year for humanity.

Swiftly Waning Year (November)

Yes, time seems to accelerate around the major USA holidays. This year is nearly over, thankfully. It has been a tough one for me (physically), and for the world it has been fairly dreadful. On top of the revolting situation in Iraq, the idiotic mortgage lending practices and real estate bubble of the 00's have inevitably backlashed. As usual, our greatest minds either didn't see it coming or had their warnings conveniently ignored.

This month found me at Carnegie Hall to hear Sir Simon Rattle lead the Berliner Philharmoniker in a masterful performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, and at Madison Square Garden's WaMu Theater to see Cirque du Soleil's "Wintuk." Wintuk is ideal for kids 12 and under, and my child certainly enjoyed it.

Rattle/Berlin/Mahler is a phenomenal combination. Imagine the precision of Karajan leavened by a non-Teutonic jouissance, but without overindulgence. In other words, despite loving Leonard Bernstein's work as I do, Rattle's Mahler 9 would nonetheless be my unquestioned first pick. Of course, Lenny's divinely, egregiously overindulgent Mahler 5 is eternally unassailable...

I'm producing a few cues for Fire Under the Snow, and studying-up on a range of technical subjects, but mostly just counting the days until I head back to Japan in late December.

Darbuka (October)

A very special person (Mom!) just returned from Istanbul, Turkey and among other things brought back a darbuka. Apparently Istanbul has a large district of highly skilled traditional musical instrument makers. The darbuka and the riqq are arguably the most important percussion instruments in traditional North African and Middle Eastern musics.

Bansuri (September)

I've begun playing the bansuri - a type of bamboo flute used widely in India. Though I may be foolhardy enough to begin performing with it in less than 5 months**, it will be at least 5 years until I really get the hang of it.

**What's in 5 months? Well, on 10 Feb 2008 I have a gig for which it may be appropriate. The core members of the Tangier Treehouse soundtrack ensemble - Jeff Hudgins, clarinet and David Cohen, oud - will join me (various instruments) for an acoustic trio performance at a church in Brooklyn, USA. Details TBA, but probable repertoire includes music of Anouar Brahem, Erik Satie, myself, and some standard Egyptian songs. We're billed as Washwasha, meaning "whisper" in Arabic. It will be gentle music.

BKLYN (July, August)

Yep, I'm back in Brooklyn, and nope, I didn't bring back a shamisen. Perhaps another time.
Now working on a Christmas multimedia campaign for Pagina Junior and finally getting back to the Syncretic Modes book project.
Devilish endgame details of Fire Under the Snow are likewise on my plate. Good news is that the rough-cut is _really_ almost done...I think this film will be finished within 2007.

In Japan (June)

Late May to June I'm in Tokyo for field recordings, scouting-out shamisen makers, and catching-up with our many friends and big family over there.

Fire Under the Snow (May)

→ Narration Co-Writer
→ Composer

This documentary film production continues. As of mid-May I'm polishing narration text and recording scratch versions. The new editor Milica Zec is doing excellent work, and the film is really coming together - it will be a major Tibet-related picture and the definitive treatment of Ven. Palden Gyatso's life story.
We're using existing music by Oscar-winner Ryuichi Sakamoto. Out of apparent political sensitivity, he has declined to compose new music for the project. Consequently, Techung and I may produce the closing theme and some other incidental cues. [ more info ]

wooway films: Tangier Treehouse (March, April)

→ Composer

The good people at wooway films have chosen me to score their documentary film Tangier Treehouse, my main creative activity into the second week of April.
It is a loving examination of a very special vocational school for homeless and indigent youths in Morocco. Two energetic and wildly creative American dreamers (Roderick Romero and Sean Gullette) enter the students' lives for a week, with the goal of building - you guessed it - a treehouse. Believe me, this is no ordinary treehouse! You will want to see this film. Look for it on PBS later in the year.
Mieko, Jeff and Aaron performing circa 2001

Mieko, Jeff and Aaron performing circa 2001

photo by William Scalia

I'm very happy that this project has reunited in my work the talents of Mieko Take and Jeff Hudgins, who are contributing beautiful clarinet, saxophone and vocal performances.

Psychoneedles: Life on the B-Side (February, March)

→ Producer, Orchestration
→ Bass, rhythm guitar, synth programming

Sour Hills and Dr. Yes of the Psychoneedles have come up with yet another brilliant song - Life on the B-Side. The fecundity of their songwriting partnership is truly remarkable.
Through February and early March, they've allowed me great creative freedom in producing a finished track. Final mix is now (mid-March) being done by Wade Alin in Chicago.
The song relates to the Phil Spector / Lana Clarkson murder trial. Spector created the "Wall of Sound" pop production technique in the 1960s. Accordingly, I've gone for a big sound in my orchestration, but no direct imitation was made of his signature style...stay tuned, you'll be hearing it on TV or radio!

Life on the B-Side now FOR SALE, and can of course be previewed, here: the Psychoneedles MySpace page.

Jizo in Winter (January)

→ Composer

In January I prepared an updated edition of my 1995-6 concert work for saxophone soloist and piano. It is looking likely that a performance will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay sometime in Fall '07. Details to come.

In the meantime, here are excerpts of the brilliant recording of the piece by Jeff Hudgins (saxophones) and Greg Pagel (piano).

Excerpt from Mvt 1: Prologue
Excerpt from Mvt 2: Dilemma
Excerpt from Mvt 3: Resolution

Syncretic Modes book

→ Compiler

I hesitate to call myself a "writer" in this instance: a compilation of ancient melodic and rhythmic modes gleaned from the European, Carnatic and Maqam traditions. What make my approach different and (I hope) useful are the ways in which the modes are grouped and cross-referenced. Every available avenue of single-interval modal modulation is worked out. All of the gathering and editing of content was completed by mid-2006; what has held me up is the search for an ideal master-document file format, one from which a printed version, an HTML version, a PDF version, MIDI files, etc, can all be generated with ease and precision. In December 2006 the search finally ended with the discovery of LilyPond, an open-source music engraver and document converter of awesome capabilty. Now I just have to learn the program!

'Birth of the Dub' Sessions: Nocturnes Vol. 1

→ Composer/Producer

It is my fond and longstanding wish to release a collection of new compositions reflecting the influences of chronic moonlighting, Abdel Ali Slimani, Anouar Brahem, Azzddine, Bill Laswell, Bjork, Black Uhuru, Cheb I Sabbah, Claude Debussy, Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw, Hamza el Din, Jah Wobble, Jon Hassell, Karsh Kale, the Mad Professor, Massive Attack, Miles Davis (in the '70s), Natacha Atlas, et cetera, just to name a few. Get the idea? Are we NOT World Citizens?! You can bet your ass we ARE, baby. Stay tuned, the millennium is yet young...

Fire Under the Snow

→ Narration Co-Writer
→ Composer

A documentary film about the life of Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, torture survivor, and political prisoner for 33 years under the Chinese subjugation of Tibet, now an author and public speaker. In autumn 2006 our Director interviewed His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama wrote the Foreword to Palden's autobiography, and will appear in the film.

2006 Tribeca Film Institute All Access Connects "Creative Promise" Award Winner and 2006 NYSCA grantee.

For a brief but quite nuanced overview of the Tibet-China story please see John Derbyshire's essay Tibet's Long Agony.

Psychoneedles Inaugural Remix

→ Remix Producer
→ Bass, Taanpura-box

I had the honor in late 2006 to be the first remix artist to work on material by the Psychoneedles, a Salem/NY-based supergroup of alt-rock industry vets. Here it is, for your aural delectation!

The Psychoneedles' Cold Cold Ground Remix v.1
streamed from this site
streamed from the Psychoneedles MySpace site
streamed from the Dr. Yes MySpace site

Sempai Rewa

→ Producer: 3 tracks
→ Performer (bass, synth, gtr): 5 tracks

Techung's album of new songs and studio creations debuted in January 2006 at Kalachakra 2006 in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Now on CD! Buy it from Phayul Online.

Children's Music (working title)

→ Producer
→ Performer (bass, synth)

Techung's lovely collection of traditional Tibetan folk songs for children. *Not yet released.

Techung: In Skyflower Garden (working title)

→ Producer
→ Performer (basses)

In August '05, we recorded a live in-studio session to develop material for the Fire Under the Snow soundtrack. The status of this material is uncertain, as there is now a possibility that Academy Award winner Ryuichi Sakamoto (Oscar winner for The Last Emperor score) might provide music.
It is not inconceivable that this material could become a stand-alone CD, if the musicians involved felt it warranted.

Techung: voice, throat-singing, Tibetan lute and fiddle
Ted Reichman: accordion
Blake Lindberg: percussion

Mix work:

Brazilian Acoustic Ensemble
Billy Newman Quartet
Fine NYC-based working musicians delivering traditional Jazz and Brazilian repertoire. Book 'em!

Became a parent!

Didn't do much music/sound work that year, other than finishing up Sound Design on Arakimentari and doing some minor composing/sound mix for a couple of SONY's World Event Village video reports (dir. Masako T.). Also did some tricky noise-reduction sound restoration for Travis Klose's edit of some TV awards show (what was it??).
Oh yes, I also did a sonic transfiguration of a 'jazz trio + rhymer' track helmed by German bass clarinetist Klaus Appel and featuring the words and voice of fellow polymath Malik Burke...but not certain it was released.

Arakimentari

Sound editor/designer/mixer for Travis Klose's film Arakimentari about Tokyo-based Nobuyoshi Araki, one of the most vivacious and prolific photographers alive today.
Now on DVD! Buy it from Amazon.com or from Barnes and Noble.

I worked for a year with the great underground rhyme-preacher Tranquill on a volume of trippy, jazzy, preachy hip-hop...and before that we developed Mieko's brilliant cycle of Japanese avant-pop songs...and before that the Skyflower avant-jazz quintet flew for a few years...and before that I wrote some award-winning jazz and classical chamber music (very academic, in hindsight)...and before that I was a child of the early Knitting Factory scene...oh, and in some places I am also known as "moyashi."