Dewanatrons were created in order to make music in real time, suitable for
concert performance, live recording, or to be broadcast over the airwaves.
The special purpose of Dewanatrons, which are modern solid-state analog instruments, is to grow music live in collaboration with the operators who guide them. While inherently musical in their impulses, the machines have no discipline and require governing by judicious overseers. Some instruments are components, or appliances, which used in tandem with other appliances becomes part of an electronic chamber group. Other instruments are a self-contained chamber ensemble in a single housing.
The operators begin a process which develops into a shape beyond their authorship; the operators become gardeners, watering and pruning, mulching and composting sound. The music becomes a contrapuntal morass, twining and climbing, chirping, buzzing, blinking, snapping. The operators guide the instruments, and the instruments carry the operators and others through an ever metamorphosing landscape. The Dewanatrons have delighted young and old, and have been welcome in radio stations, art galleries and the concert hall.
Brian Dewan
Brian Dewan used to build furniture for a living and as of late is making and projecting I-CAN-SEE filmstrips. Two CDs, Brian Dewan Tells The Story and The Operating Theater feature songs with autoharp and electric zither accompaniment. He has exhibited drawings and filmstrips at The Brooklyn Museum, The New Museum, Pierogi gallery, The Armory Show and Modern Art Oxford. His recent recording of Lewis Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark has aired in London and New York.
While studying art, organ and composition at Oberlin College he recorded electronic music with Putney, Buchla, Arp and Moog synthesizers. He plays zither and other instruments with The Raymond Scott Orchestrette and arranged Scott's electronic music for live acoustic septet in collaboration with accordionist Will Holshouser. In addition to performances of instrumental music he has also provided live accompaniment to the silent films of Ladislaw Starewicz, Harry Smith, Ester Shub, Oscar Fischinger, and rare films from the Mark Newgarden collection. These were screened at Lincoln Center, Galapogas, Tonic, The Robert Beck Theater and The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium.
Leon Dewan
Leon Dewan apprenticed to his inventor father since early childhood, helping him to construct homemade test equipment and numerous electromechanical, solid state and vacuum tube based radio frequency prototypes. He recorded his first electronic music in 1980 with a calculator and an electronic quiz game which broadcast signals to a clock radio tuned between stations. In 1989 he received a degree in physics at Yale University. He has played guitar and sung in New York based band The Happiest Guys In The World as well as The Philistines Jr, Shaumgummi, Dangerspoon, Flaming Fire, and Circuit Parade. He collaborated with sculpter Kathleen Griffin and for the Sculpture Center's inaugural In Practice series created an installation involving large hollow spherical bodies made of hard candy with circuitry inside that caused the candy spheres to self-resonate at various points along their resonant spectrums. Governed by slow chaos, they harmonized in unpredictable ways, "singing" to each other in the vaulted cellar of The Sculpture Center in Queens.
Leon has performed at Rich Forum, the Knitting Factory, Pierogi Gallery, PS1 Summer Warmup, The Armory Show, Galapagos, Tonic, Town Hall (Manhattan), The Highline Ballroom, The Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, LI, Issue Project Room, The Bowery Ballroom, The Steve Allen Theater, Ghettogloss, The Fowler Museum at UCLA, Cinefamily Silent Movie Theater, and Another Year in LA among other venues.
The special purpose of Dewanatrons, which are modern solid-state analog instruments, is to grow music live in collaboration with the operators who guide them. While inherently musical in their impulses, the machines have no discipline and require governing by judicious overseers. Some instruments are components, or appliances, which used in tandem with other appliances becomes part of an electronic chamber group. Other instruments are a self-contained chamber ensemble in a single housing.
The operators begin a process which develops into a shape beyond their authorship; the operators become gardeners, watering and pruning, mulching and composting sound. The music becomes a contrapuntal morass, twining and climbing, chirping, buzzing, blinking, snapping. The operators guide the instruments, and the instruments carry the operators and others through an ever metamorphosing landscape. The Dewanatrons have delighted young and old, and have been welcome in radio stations, art galleries and the concert hall.
Brian Dewan
Brian Dewan used to build furniture for a living and as of late is making and projecting I-CAN-SEE filmstrips. Two CDs, Brian Dewan Tells The Story and The Operating Theater feature songs with autoharp and electric zither accompaniment. He has exhibited drawings and filmstrips at The Brooklyn Museum, The New Museum, Pierogi gallery, The Armory Show and Modern Art Oxford. His recent recording of Lewis Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark has aired in London and New York.
While studying art, organ and composition at Oberlin College he recorded electronic music with Putney, Buchla, Arp and Moog synthesizers. He plays zither and other instruments with The Raymond Scott Orchestrette and arranged Scott's electronic music for live acoustic septet in collaboration with accordionist Will Holshouser. In addition to performances of instrumental music he has also provided live accompaniment to the silent films of Ladislaw Starewicz, Harry Smith, Ester Shub, Oscar Fischinger, and rare films from the Mark Newgarden collection. These were screened at Lincoln Center, Galapogas, Tonic, The Robert Beck Theater and The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium.
Leon Dewan
Leon Dewan apprenticed to his inventor father since early childhood, helping him to construct homemade test equipment and numerous electromechanical, solid state and vacuum tube based radio frequency prototypes. He recorded his first electronic music in 1980 with a calculator and an electronic quiz game which broadcast signals to a clock radio tuned between stations. In 1989 he received a degree in physics at Yale University. He has played guitar and sung in New York based band The Happiest Guys In The World as well as The Philistines Jr, Shaumgummi, Dangerspoon, Flaming Fire, and Circuit Parade. He collaborated with sculpter Kathleen Griffin and for the Sculpture Center's inaugural In Practice series created an installation involving large hollow spherical bodies made of hard candy with circuitry inside that caused the candy spheres to self-resonate at various points along their resonant spectrums. Governed by slow chaos, they harmonized in unpredictable ways, "singing" to each other in the vaulted cellar of The Sculpture Center in Queens.
Leon has performed at Rich Forum, the Knitting Factory, Pierogi Gallery, PS1 Summer Warmup, The Armory Show, Galapagos, Tonic, Town Hall (Manhattan), The Highline Ballroom, The Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, LI, Issue Project Room, The Bowery Ballroom, The Steve Allen Theater, Ghettogloss, The Fowler Museum at UCLA, Cinefamily Silent Movie Theater, and Another Year in LA among other venues.
