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Dose Hermanos

Persistence of Memory Dose Hermanos

Persistence of Memory

The new album out now by Dose Hermanos!

Persistence of Memory

Dose Hermanos

Bob Bralove and Tom “T.C.” Constanten, also known as Dose Hermanos

“Persistence of Memory” is the latest documentation of the always-fascinating ongoing encounter of two remarkable musical minds, keyboardists Bob Bralove and Tom “T.C.” Constanten, also known as Dose Hermanos. Though both came to prominence associated with the Grateful Dead, Tom as keyboard player from 1968 to 1970, and Bob as an engineer, programmer, and occasional performer from 1987 to 1995, this music is Dead-like only in its wide-open, wholly improvisational exploration of a vast musical universe with only one rule: does the result, said Bralove, “feel like Dose?”

 

Their playing, thought Tom, felt as though they were Sinbad the Sailor going out to explore the seven seas of music. “And we found a lot of sea creatures to consort with.” “The history of most musical cultures,” he continued, “is the story of the emergence and evolution of a code, a ‘way it’s done,’ pointing the way to successful outcomes. From time to time someone would come along with an inspired vision, usually requiring a rewriting of the rules. From the start, the Dose Hermanos approach has been to get as close as possible to 100% improvisation all the time. To interact musically, and then see where it leads.” The result is, to quote Earle Brown, “not a composition that is performed, but a performance that is composed.”

 

The amazing thing, Bob added, is “how willing listeners have been to come along for the ride.”

 

Though they’d run into each other before, they only connected when their mutual friend Henry Kaiser suggested that T.C. sit in at a show of Bob’s band “Second Sight.” They sat down at two pianos to review material, and found that they couldn’t stop playing—improvisations simply kept unfolding to reveal an inexhaustible musical connection. It was reinforced after Jerry Garcia’s death, when T.C., seeing Bralove’s despair, leaned over and said, “You know how to get through this, don’t you?” “No.” “You play through this.”

 

And so Dose Hermanos was born.

 

Their most recent studio album, Batique, leaned to acoustic pianos; “Persistence of Memory” employs the full range of digital sound to create literally infinite possibilities.

Dose Hermanos' first-Shows at the knitting factory

Bob Bralove and Tom “T.C.” Constanten – first shows at the Knitting Factory

“When you find someone who speaks your language you feel like you are home. That’s how I felt the very first time I played with Tom.”   – Bob Bralove. 

About Dose Hermanos

Bob Bralove and Tom Constanten (TC) are Dose Hermanos. They have been playing together off and on for the last 20 years.  Their bond was steeled in the furnace of the Grateful Dead – Tom playing with the band from 1968 to 1970 and Bralove working his magic with the band for the last eight years of the long strange trip.


“I’ve described us as coherent but not congruent. We each bring something different to the table — he with his electronic wizardry … and composition studies and I with my composition studies in Europe 60 years ago with (Karlheinz) Stockhuasen and (Luciano) Berio and (Pierre) Boulez. … Putting this together, we have all these sorts of musical discussions. Sometimes, even while we’re doing them, they sound like arguments.”


These conversations have been evolving through the years. Becoming more exact and more inclusive of different kinds and styles of music. From the fully electronic to the fully acoustic. From writing and playing scores with a full orchestra to recordings with just two pianos. Thanks to Bralove’s technical prowess they have even played with images attached to their notes. 


“There is nothing that is off the table for us.  Either one of us can bring in a kernel of an idea and we will see what Dose Hermanos will do with it. All the ideas we bring to Dose Hermanos are just starting places to explore in improvisation. Sometimes when we play the music seems to transcend the notes themselves and become about the broad gestures and we let the notes take care of themselves. At other times we can be totally focused on just a few of the notes. The range is wide open .” -Bob Bralove

 

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