Ropeadope

Bill Brovold's talents as a composer, musician and sound experimenter are evident in his recordings and performances. But it is the depth and scope of his career that make his musical history a worthwhile read. Long before he and his band, Larval, were signed to John Zorn's record label or compared to King Crimson, Glen Branca and Godspeed You Black Emperor, Brovold was building his sound and sensibility. Performing and recording with some of the most influential artists in modern music as early as the 1970s, Bill was an important player in the New York No Wave scene.


After studying painting at the School of Visual Arts in New York, he returned to his home state, Washington, where he composed music in an old barn. In the 1980s, Bill was back in New York, where he played guitar with the Rhys Chatham Ensemble, the East Village Orchestra, Fast Forward, and the Zen Vikings (with Modern Lovers bassist, Ernie Brooks, and saxophonist, Otto Kentrol). He was also exhibiting his visual art throughout the United States and in Europe. By the time he got to Detroit in the 1990s, Bill had a strong sense of what was going on in the world of modern music and in his own work. He was ready to take his sonic experiments and deconstructed rock riffs and form the band, Larval.



"I try, in my visual art and my music, to stay away from pure stylized work",Bill said in a 1997 interview. “I try not to become neo-expressionist or abstract what ever it is. I try to keep the music from being pure minimalism or avant-garde contemporary classical."



True to Bill's need for constant movement and evolution, Larval became more of an ongoing collaboration with a range of musicians who could best interpret and contribute to his genre-defying compositions. A layered combination of guitar, bass, saxophone, violin, cello, harp, percussion and more build his dense mathematical sound scapes. Often players will arrange their own parts to create the swirling torrents of classical, straight-on rock, surf guitar and noise that have become Larval's signature sound.