Before moving to Sedalia, Missouri in 2013, Danny Brymer was apart of local progressive rock band, The Aaron Clift Experiment. After his move, he formed a progressive rock trio, The Alea Dilemma, who released their debut album last year called Within the Clamor of Voices. This jazz fusion record is a strong and electrifying work, of which the band hopes to portray both complexity and artistry. I reached out to Danny Brymer, the lead vocalist and guitarist, for his views on progressive music, progressive rock, and how we can continue to think forward in the music industry.

“I see classical and jazz music as being art music counterparts to what I consider to be true ‘prog,” Brymer said. “I don’t want to be the ‘elitist prog police,’ but I believe that it is more than a mood or a vibe to capture, but it is working with the elements of music and painting or sculpting with them to create a work of art.”

Specifically on progressive rock, Brymer notes that while some bands today weigh heavily on the technical side of music, he believes there is more to offer.

“It seems like the odd time signatures and conceptual elements of typical prog are the only things really used by some modern prog bands, and the harmonic and melodic aspects are not as developed and end up being not that much different from pop music,” Brymer added. “Now that does not mean that prog needs to be highly technical and busy, because that is not all musical art is. The art songs of Schubert and the restrained, lyrical phrasing of Miles Davis tend to be profoundly simple, yet come from a place of richness and, for me, hold high artistic as well as emotional merit.”

He states that his influences as well as his band’s influences include Yes, Rush, Kansas, Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and many others when writing for a jazz fusion album. However, for Brymer personally, his concentrated years of classical study have specifically enhanced his songwriting.

“Getting into prog initially opened up my interest in classical music and I went neck deep in it for a while,” he commented. “At the same time as a guitarist, I played a lot of jazz and studied the greats such as Coltrane, Charlie Parker, etc and burned through the standards, and I concentrated on that for a while. While studying composition for my master degree, it occurred to me that a rock band is an ensemble just as an orchestra or string quartet, and I can borrow ideas and concepts from that and implement them in a rock setting, as I am an electric guitarist after all.”

He not only hopes to incorporate classical setting norms into the rock/fusion world, but also achieve a balance between cerebral discourse and aesthetic experiences.

“The composers of the early 20th Century lost touch with their audiences with the intense focus on cerebral music that alienated anyone searching for emotional expression,” Brymer speculated. “I believe as long as there is a good balance of focus on the composer, performer, and audience, progressive music can succeed and win people over.”

Also, he adds that progressive music needs to be promoted more often. All the more reason why Voyager Fest is determined to make that happen.

“I always wonder how Beethoven was able to write the complex masterpieces he did and be popular among audiences all over Europe and even America,” Brymer noted. “The culture determines thought, and if there was a way to influence culture more toward the higher arts, then progressive artists could flourish more.”

It’s a continuing challenge for all progressive musicians to overcome in their own circle of friends, with family, among people at the workplace, and to the regulars at the bars. Hence, this is the mission of Voyager Fest-to manifest a high-art, cultural hub as well as motivate all live music scenes to do the same.

To see a recent album review of Within the Clamor of Voices, please visit: http://progulator.com/reviews/the-alea-dilemma-within-the-clamor-of-voices/

For more information on The Alea Dilemma, please visit: http://www.thealeadilemma.com/

For more information on Danny Brymer, please visit: http://www.dannybrymer.com/

Following the first annual Voyager Music Festival, the VoyagerFest organization began coordinating a series of events during the year, which are intended to help build interest, awareness, and a broader audience for the next festival. For the first event, we could not be more excited to have Ponytrap perform a new experimental production entitled Promethean Waltz. The group will headline the event on January 24, 2016 at the Stateside Theater.

The overall intent of the work is to influence society to find human connection in a world overrun by technology. The artists wish to convey this using video projections (by RECSPEC)  string instruments, robot drummers (including one that is larger than life) vocals, theatrics, and more. At the core of Ponytrap are husband and wife, Quentin Thomas-Oliver and Hilary Thomas-Oliver, the former performing on viola and the latter on cello.

“The theme of the show is around the search for home and belonging, ” Hilary said. “In a really direct way, the show is about us building the robots, and we built the robots because Quentin had, for a very long time, he had a vision in his head of this musical project, and he couldn’t find the right drummer to participate so he turned to technology and built the drummer. So, it is the story of us coming to that realization-we can just build it.”

The vision began about twenty-five years ago, during Quentin’s music training. He wrote the music for Promethean Waltz at that time.

“At my very first ever recital, one of those tunes-the Waltz-is from that, from that far back,” Quentin noted. “That’s how deep it goes. It is the realization of something that goes back that far. One of those tunes, which ironically for us is one of our newest tunes, is the very first thing I ever wrote for this project. Again, pushing twenty-five years ago.”

Hilary adds that there is a search for each other in their personal relationship, in their project, and then in the poetic sense-a search for everyone’s own tribe and where we can be ourselves. The metaphor of “home” is what drives the mentality behind the production. It is interesting to note that while we live in a society that is saturated by technology, and by now, in almost everything we do, that Ponytrap’s music is built upon technological grounds.

“For us the technology angle has a lot to do with somewhat making our life easier,” Quentin said, “but in the same way that that’s kind of a frightening thing.” Quentin remarks sometimes Ponytrap will get a negative response on the fact they are using a robot drummer.

Hilary continues, “Ironically enough, our relationship to technology is in defense of the technology of music, even though the theme of the show is sort of like ‘how do you connect on a human level in this world overrun by technology,’ and really it’s about the application of technology. Is it helping you or is it coming between you?”

One way to find that human connection is through creativity. Actor Charles Peter Keichline will be the voice of that creative spark in this show.

“He is the voice that kind of narrates the struggles and the successes that we have had in trying to make this project work,” Hilary added. “It’s kind of Quentin’s inner voice, as he’s tried to get this project off the ground, voicing his frustrations, and also kind of narrating, again, the metaphor on all those different levels.”

Additionally, Voyager Fest introduced Ponytrap to Laurel Barickman, who is the founder of RECSPEC-a visual arts production company. Hilary and Quentin are thrilled to have such fantastic visual work for this event, as well as the other elements combined. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own percussion, to participate, and hopefully achieve an aesthetic and musical synchronicity with the audience.

The music will start at 6 P.M. The electronic artist, eBurner, will be the opening act: http://www.eburnermusic.com

All ticket information can be found on this event page: https://tickets.austintheatre.org/single/SYOS.aspx?p=933

For more details on the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/903092409739391/ and http://www.ponytrapmusic.com/

Visuals for the event: http://recspec.org/

Photo credit: Katie Cowden Photography