Arts Desk writes about Bluebrain a lot—-but can you blame us? In contrast to most local bands’ gig-and-record-and-gig M.O., the duo of Ryan and Hays Holladay seems to devote most of its energy to out-there, one-off projects, like boombox walks and audio accompaniments to Natural History Museum exhibits. It’s got another event coming up: Restriction, a collaboration with dance troupe Urban Artistry, at the Southeast corner of Meridian Hill Park on Aug. 1.
On that date at 2 p.m., the dancers will do their thing in ostensible silence. The conceit is that audience members will show up with a crafted-for-the-occasion Bluebrain song loaded to their mp3 players. The band just uploaded the track—-a 15-minute landscape of space-age soul, off-kilter electro, and digi-jungle meanderings—-to its website. Thus far, it’s registered exactly two downloads, but it’s only been up for a few hours. Grab it: It’s worth your bandwidth.
And it’s another example of Bluebrain’s Cagean interest in synchronization: That is, while everyone at the performance will attempt to hit play at the same moment, doing so is impossible. So every audience member will hear and see an ever-so-slightly different performance.