His band is all strung out.
A composer has tossed aside the traditional violins and clarinets and assembled an orchestra entirely of guitars. The music man said the all-string ensemble, coming to Boerum Hill venue Roulette on Nov. 23, will challenge players and listeners alike.
“We’re creating an arena that is a new and different way of putting music together,” said Adam Rudolph, whose Go: Organic Orchestra series features orchestras wielding unusual arrangements of instruments from around the world.
Rudolph picked 10 guitarists and their raucous instruments — nine of them electric, and one acoustic accompanied by a foot pedal for looping the tunes — to comprise a futuristic orchestra with a psychedelic edge. The group recorded an album of their electric enterprise called “Turning Towards the Light,” but that material will not be replicated at their Roulette performance, said Rudolph — every concert is a spontaneous re-imagining of the material, led by the instincts of the musicians and Rudolph’s improvised conducting style.
“It can be very exciting for the audience because you’re seeing something actually being created for the first time before your very own eyes,” he said.
Rudolph assembled the improvisational strum orchestra after a series of guitarist friends approached him about getting involved in his Organic Orchestra. His projects at the time already had plenty of guitarists, so he created a brand new orchestra so all the string-slingers could collaborate. Taking an unorthodox approach is not something he frets about, he said.
“I’ve always been looking for new combinations of sounds and new kinds of orchestras,” said Rudolph.
Rudolph said the spontaneous nature of the performances allows for greater audience involvement — rather than simply listening to a rehearsed arrangement, they get to witness the birth of an entirely fresh sound.
“They’re traveling in this unraveling story in the concert with us,” he said. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen next, which is like life. It makes it very exciting.”
“Go: Organic Guitar Orchestra” at Roulette [509 Atlantic Ave. at Third Avenue in Boerum Hill, (917) 267-0363, www.roule
