Jules Gimbrone is a Brooklyn based composer, performer and artist who leads the music ensemble, ARIA ORION. Gimbrone often collaborates with film makers and choreographers.
"The music is a dramatic mash of lulling polyrhythm, grand melodic gestures, abrasive sound textures, and primordial vocalizations. Gimbrone (vocals, violin, guitar, textures etc.) creates a bold and layered sound immersion with Ann Adachi (flute), Daniel Arnow (bass), Leyla McCalla (cello), Ron Tucker (vibraphone, percussion), Clay Woodruff (electric guitar) and Geo Wyeth (vocals, percussion)." WREST, 2010
"...writing modules/vignettes, interpreted by different instruments. leaving loose ends within the structure in response to the dance and the film. small structures that relate to and give voice to the larger skeleton of the project. momentum, repetition that allows for space and moments that come in and out of a space.
dramatic flare – interested in duality of an emotional/visceral reaction and intellectual. creating balance through the musical approach. narrative and storytelling: acts that puncture – cutting through to the heart of it. grounds it. used to cut through the more ornate structures." Gimbrone, WREST, 2010
2010 ARIA ORION performs WREST: a multimedia performance created by artistic collaborators Jules Gimbrone, Elliot Montague, and Jules Skloot. WREST engages film, dance, and music to illuminate and examine the archetypal martyrdom of Joan of Arc in the context of queer narratives and embodiments. From birth, to visions, through tests, trials, and death,WREST grapples with themes of violence, faith, transition, and honor to expose a sliver of our shared humanity. World premier May 6-8 at the Performance Project at University Settlement.
2009 The acclaimed Brooklyn-based multi-media project, ARIA ORION, announces the release of its most recent project, LET THE SHARP STONE FLY (2009). Led by the powerful and interdisciplinary vision of award winning and multi-instrumental composer, Jules Gimbrone, LET THE SHARP STONE FLY blends emotive vocals, oboe, upright bass, accordion, drums, violin, and electric guitar/ lap steel with film and choreographed performance to highlight an epic narrative of loneliness and the perpetual search for connection. Poetic lyrics and experimental instrumentation usher the listener into a world of startling discoveries; each musical section illuminates the story of a pubescent boy, an amatory rabbit, an androgynous augur, and a fleet of birds-turned-missiles all living in exile on a mountain shrouded in pines. This highly imaginative and compelling narrative achieves an arc of textures completely unique in vision and scope.
ORIGINS Beginning in 2007 as a humble collaboration with renowned NYC dance choreographer, Jen Rosenblit, the compositional skills and forward thinking vision of Jules Gimbrone led ARIA ORION to perform at highly acclaimed venues in NYC including: The Judson Church, Glasslands Gallery, Joe’s Pub, Zebulon, Monkeytown, and Galapagos Art Space. In the spring of 2009 Gimbrone played and recporded a series of shows with NYC based experimental video artists Elliot Montague. Gimbrone is a proud Teaching Artist of music and digital media for Urban Arts Partnership and the media director for the radical queer youth program Q.u.E.S.T. In 2008 Gimbrone received the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media and is a 2010 Brooklyn Arts Council Regrant Recipient.