Green Orpheus consists of all six of the graduate students in the digital music department: David Kant GR'12, Alex Dupuis GR'12, Alison Mattek GR'12, Ryan Maguire GR'13, Phillip Hermans GR'13 and Jessica Thompson GR'13.
Digital music student Joshua Hudelson GR'11 started the group in 2009. Initially, the group was simply a discussion forum centered around music and philosophy. The name, current members speculate, combines the green associated with Dartmouth and the Greek figure Orpheus, who is strongly associated with music.
This year, the members decided to move the group in a different direction. Kant suggested launching a concert series with the goal of exploring noise as an artistic medium and sharing it with the rest of campus.
"We want to have a presence on campus for experimental music," Kant said.
The first show in the concert series, titled "Noise," occurred in Fuel on Wednesday, Oct. 19. Audience turnout was underwhelming perhaps due to a combination of timing and limited publicity but Green Orpheus members are enthusiastic about reaching out to undergraduates.
"We're really interested in expanding and getting undergraduates involved," Kant said.
Dupuis added that he feels undergraduate participation is lacking from Green Orpheus.
"That's the only thing that's been a bit sad here so far," he said. "I feel like we're missing a group of people who could do some really interesting stuff."
The group's current experimentation includes a blend of synthesizers and computer patterns with more traditional instruments like guitar and saxophone. The performances are often accompanied by a slideshow of psychedelic images.
"This is an exploration of what's possible, rather than trying to fit into a narrow definition of three-minute songs," Maguire said.
Green Orpheus members have various approaches to considering their potential for mainstream appeal.
"None of us decided there was a line and we'd be on one side or the other," Kant said. "We're just interested in making music, and it happens to be a bit weirder."
Matteck added that she hopes people will embrace Green Orpheus' unconventional approach.
"Experimental music has a sort of stigma people immediately kind of shut their minds because they think it's weird," she said. "I hope that at least a few people can hear it and become interested and open their minds."
Dupuis said experimental music is an acquired taste.
"It initially seems noisy but if you acclimate yourself, you can become open to new sonic experiences," he said.
For Mattek, the novelty of listening to sounds she has not heard before is what draws her to experimental music.
"It's sort of a similar experience to going to a place you've never been before," she said. "When you confront something you don't know, it opens your mind."
The process of composing such music is different from more traditional composition. Kant, for example, said that his focus is on using processes and systems to create music rather than on writing the music himself.
For some of the musicians, music is meant to be transformative and they try to resist the temptation of mimicry that prevails in pop music.
"I don't want to hear the same thing over and over, the same pop song a thousand times," he said. "Lots of artists do variations of the same thing their entire career. Writing music is about pushing myself not to do the same thing over and over."
While their focus is on experimentation in music, the members of Green Orpheus all have extensive and eclectic music tastes that range beyond experimental genres.
"[The types of music] give me different things popular music generates certain kinds of emotional and bodily reactions, good beats make you want to dance," Dupuis said. "It's difficult to get that out of more academic music. On the other hand, academic music is more intellectually stimulating."
Experimental music is designed for listening attentively, Matteck said.
"That's why people find it hard to listen to, because it's a very active process," she said. "People aren't used to that. Even when they think they're listening to music, they usually aren't their mind is wandering and they're thinking about their day."
The group plans to perform in various campus venues in the coming months, including One Wheelock and the Hopkins Center, but their most ambitious plan involves utilizing the Baker Tower bells in the spring.
