Who is this?
I’m Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip. I live in Toronto, Canada.
We’re a band from Toronto, Canada. Some of our music is brutal and political; we set American lawyer/douchebag John Yoo’s Torture Memos to music (The Torture Memos). Some of our music is friendly and romantic (Truth in the Dark).
Kristin Mueller-Heaslip sings and writes lyrics. Ben Mueller-Heaslip composes the music and plays piano and sometimes bass. Jen Wardle paints huge landscapes featuring pugs and plays saxophone. Alex Cheung makes bad jokes and plays the violin. Alex McMaster finds time and plays cello. Dave MacDougall just plays the drums. That’s all he does; he’s a very serious man.
I’m writing an operatic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu, which will be premiered in Jan/Feb/March/April? of 2012. Check back here later and I might have some audio from that show here.
Some reviews/mentions in media:
David Dacks in Exclaim Magazine:
“Kristin Mueller-Heaslip’s fraught, full-throttle operatic vocals are absolutely brilliant, exposing the brutality dulled by the jargon of the source material.”
Tank Riot Podcast (best podcast in the multiverse):
“Sounds like a great project!”
December 2007: Review of ‘Truth in the Dark’ in Eye Magazine:
“Supported by cello, violin and saxophone, Kristin Mueller-Heaslip’s operatic delivery is the focus of this chamber-pop ensemble. The PRO players successfully meld Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip’s dramatic, arrangements into concise little rock rhythms. Benjamin weaves together overlapping hooks into a rich harmonic tapestry, and the rhythm section occasionally steps out from behind the arrangements, as on their cover of Wire’s ‘Comet’.”
- David Dacks
Review of Truth in the Dark in Now Magazine
“The Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra, an esoteric six-piece chamber ensemble, aren’t likely to be booked at the Four Seasons Tea Room.
The PRO are a challenging brew of classical, art rock, opera and punk, which looks nightmarish on paper but occasionally works. Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip’s arrangements are unique and uncompromised, taking on music snob favourites like Wire and Brian Eno as well as Kurt Weill. His band, violinist Alex Cheung, saxophonist Jennifer Wardle and rhythm section Michael Kaler and Mike Rosenthal, competently keep up with each song’s shifting shape and form.”
-Benjamin Boles
August 2007: John Terauds in the Toronto Star:
“The composer is more a 21st-century incarnation of the 19th-century Romantic who wants to have as many people as possible hear what he has to say in music.
Everything the band performs is by the composer’s hand. It is an engaging, wonky mix of classical minimalism, art punk and early Brian Eno-inspired electronica translated into an acoustic medium.
“You can hear Franz Schubert, Philip Glass and David Byrne,” says Mueller-Heaslip about his musical aesthetic. There is something caustically off-balance at work, too – an echo of Kurt Weill’s ironic voice from Weimar-era Germany. “I see what I do as an extension of the chamber Lieder-salon world. I work with a small, mobile force, like Chopin and Schubert.”
Mueller-Heaslip and many of the band members lived in the Parkdale-High Park neighbourhood when the band formed two years ago. “I was composing and working as a bicycle courier at the time.”
The “revolutionary” aspect of the band’s name comes from Mueller-Heaslip’s desire to break through the invisible barrier around contemporary classical music. Like many young artists and listeners, the composer thinks the new music scene is too insular.
Unlike many fellow sonic warriors, you won’t find Mueller-Heaslip onstage at one of the Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra’s monthly gigs at the Tranzac Club or Clinton’s. He is the creative force, leaving performing to wife Kristin (soprano voice), Alex Cheung (violin), Kerri McGonigle (cello), Jennifer Wardle (soprano sax), Michael Kaler (bass) and Michael “Rosie” Rosenthal (drums).”
-John Terauds
August 2007 : Public Broadcasting.ca:
“It has been suggested to me that there is an influence from such people as Phillip Glass and Godspeed You Black Emperor – which is certainly true. But it is an evolution of that school, not merely a member of it…
…If you are truly not afraid of experimentation, of new directions or of bands that are willing to try something new rather than follow the crowd I’d strongly encourage you to introduce yourself to their music and consider going to one of their upcoming shows at the Tranzac Club.”
-Justin Beach
June 2007 : Exclaim Magazine:
“Take new music opera, reduce the instrumentation to a manageable and mobile six-piece group and play bars, not stuffy, self-important venues for the self-appointed intelligentsia, and you’ve got a handle on the ‘revolutionary’ part of the Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra. Founded in 2006 by composer/lyricist Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip, the group has two strings, soprano saxophone, drums and bass, and soprano vocalist Kristin Mueller-Heaslip.
The eponymously-titled EP features 4 representative pieces from the ensemble’s considerable repertoire. The first song, “Imposter”, based on lyrics by darkster Karl Mohr, features a melodic line passionately delivered by Kristin over Reich/Glass-like ostinato string lines. Soprano saxophonist Jennifer Wardle’s crystal clear tone imbues “Recurrents” with a glistening sheen as string lines form a tapestry of shimmering patterns.
In a musical genre known for feeding from government grant troughs, the Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra is making a bold and courageous statement by bypassing established outlets and playing for audiences where they go to have fun and a little adventure. What a concept!”
-Glen Hall
March 31 2007: The Arts Now Podcast
hosted by Ella Cooper and Amil Niazi
“…they do classical reworkings of Brian Eno: See Them Play!”
-Amil Niazi
