BRATTLEBORO — As the saying goes, the third time's the charm.
Rescheduled twice - first, due to the coronavirus pandemic and then to the technical challenges of livestreaming a one-person electric guitar ensemble from the Vermont woods - “Roger Clark Miller: Four Dream Interpretations” will take place on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom and Facebook Live.
Presented by the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), the performance will be followed by a discussion with musician and artist Roger Clark Miller.
The concert is offered in conjunction with the multimedia installation “Roger Clark Miller: Transmuting the Prosaic,” on view in BMAC's Mary Sommer Room through Monday, Oct. 12.
Miller is a co-founder and front man of the art-punk band Mission of Burma and a member of Alloy Orchestra, a three-person ensemble that Roger Ebert called “the best in the world at accompanying silent films,” according to the group's publicity materials.
“Four Dream Interpretations” is an updated version of Miller's Elemental Guitar album from 1995. It features Miller on a customized Stratocaster six-string guitar, three altered/prepared lap-steel guitars, a looping device, and sound-altering tools.
Miller describes his performance as a “solo electric guitar ensemble,” because the looping device means that three or more guitar parts are often heard simultaneously.
Like much of Miller's work, “Four Dream Interpretations” blends rock, classical new music, psychedelia, electronic composition, and ambient sound.
The structure of the music is based on Miller's dreams and the Dream Interpretation technique he developed in 1975 as a student at Thomas Jefferson College.
“Part of what intrigues me about this technique is that a dream is created without conscious control yet is completely ego-based and could only have been created by that dreamer,” Miller said in a news release. “It is, in that sense, an interesting take on utilizing 'chance' in music, and is simultaneously super-personal, yet objectively abstract.”