Tonight at Beat Research we’re happy to play host to Brent Arnold, who I had the pleasure to get to know last spring during Nettle’s residency at Brandeis.

We like to keep things well mixed at BR, and bringing in a little solo cello + voice + processing is definitely par for the course, if a bit beyond the typical DJ/livePA fare. As usual, Flack & I will warm things up and keep the music going after Brent’s performance. Here’s the deets —

Monday, Dec 7, 2009
Brent Arnold, solo cello & voice
at the Enormous Room
567 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
9pm to 1am, 21+, free. 617.491.5550

“…most definitely a musician’s musician…” PITCHFORK
“…a perfect mix of compositional genius and lo-fi charm.” ALTERNATIVE PRESS
“…cinematic and lushly coherent.” TIME OUT NEW YORK

Brent Arnold uses a cello, his voice, and a battery of effects pedals to create songs of unhinged beauty and searing intensity. His unorthodox but virtuosic approach to the cello and its possibilities takes his music from minimal to massive, often within a single song. He combines rock and pop with classical and the avant-garde and calls to mind cello pioneers like Arthur Russell and Tom Cora, as well as classical/pop tinkerers like Andrew Bird and Final Fantasy and the intense instrumental music of Explosions in the Sky.

He has worked with artists including Modest Mouse, DJ/Rupture, Sleater-Kinney, Eyvind Kang, Karl Blau, Lenny Kravitz, the Moools, Filastine, and many more.

Brent studied at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA with with Walter Gray of the Kronos Quartet and jazz violinist Michael White. Today he lives in New York City.

Brent’s recent work on the new Nettle record (interpreting The Shining in a post-debt Dubai?!!) is stunning, and though I don’t know whether we’ll be hearing hints of that project, his solo stuff is quite arresting in its own right. Should be quite a night.