Christopher Birnbaum is a multi-media artist and composer from Skokie, IL. He grew up in a musical household and has been playing in bands with his dad since he was 10. He has played in orchestras and punk bands, jazz trios and ambient collectives. His composition work has been used in commissions in art galleries and in short film.
His areas of musical expertise are in-the-box composition and sound design. However, that is not the full breadth of his skills. He is a poet, a drummer, a pianist, a writer, a dungeon master, a black belt holder in Tae-Kwon-Do, and a philosopher.
He enjoys, above all else, deep conversations with interesting people, and teaching others. This has lead into his community focused poetry workshops, his podcast collaborations, and his experiences in education though teaching in classes and IT work.
Since he got access to the Public Library AV lab (early 2018), he has been making in-the-box (computer) music. He has been making songs almost daily since he got Ableton (late 2018) and has been working on his craft.
"Pear Tree Peaches Movie Podcast" Podcast mini-series, 2020; Creative Director, Participant, Engineer
2020 albums are in the mastering phase
Countless Live Shows with rock and jazz bands around Chicago Land and Illinois 2008-2020; Christopher Birnbaum and Acquaintances
Albums
"3 Albums 3 Months" Music Albums, 2019 [trailer]; Written, Produced, Engineered by Christopher Birnbaum, Album art by Christopher Birnbaum except for Undercurrents
"Undercurrents" Music Album, June 2019;
"Damela" Music Album, May 2019
"TYOO" Music Album, April 2019
Music Videos
"Abandon Regret Meditation" Music Video, 2019; Edited from Public Domain Material by Christopher Birnbaum
"Fog & Floodlights "Music Video, 2019; Edited from Public Domain Material by Christopher Birnbaum
"Two Hands" Music Video, 2019; Edited from Public Domain Material by Christopher Birnbaum
"Full Swing" Music Video, 2019; Edited from Public Domain Material by Christopher Birnbaum
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"Undercurrents" Art Show Soundtrack, Art Center of Highland Park, 2019; Composer in collaboration with the visual artists from the show
"Epictetus Live" Live Music Series, 2017-2018; Christopher Birnbaum, Michael Birnbaum, Nathan Fivecoate
"Epictetus" Music Artist, 2016- ; Christopher Birnbaum is Epictetus
"The Witness Podcast" Podcast mini-series, 2018; Participant with Blake Martin, Producer
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"Tabula Rasa" Short Film, 2013; Writer, Actor, and Co-Director with Michael Birnbaum, Co-Director
I seek to, with my work, inspire the listener or watcher or what-have-you to see the world in new ways. That is what I love about poetry, it has shown me new ways to think of the every day, the mundane. The sound of a book closing, the sight of a blurry sunset through dirty windows, the click of a pen, and the static between the stations. I hope it brings life. I hope it is sublime.
I seek to explore the vastness and possibilities of sound in my musical work. I've made efforts towards this nearly every day for the past 3 years. Before that, even, I have sound designed in other ways: in my work on guitar pedals, on pianos, on strange little gadgets, in the observation of how the breeze sounds and the birds and the cars. I seek though it, understanding and peace and fullness. There are limits to human hearing and human perception... but in that box there is much yet to be discovered.
My work is nearly daily. Arranging new drum sounds and patterns, reading about new and old ways to sound design, walking in the woods with a field recorder, practicing piano, and working on in-the-box writing. I'm always trying to expand my pallet in self-education, but I can't internalize it until I try to apply it to my work. Evey success and failure is a learning moment, and my repertoire grows quickly because of it.
In my video work I have sought out the Public Domain for inspiration. I like to work with tape in my music, making loops of drums or sounds or harmonies; so it seemed natural to start with tape I could find available and free for use. I searched until something visual spoke to me about a track I had made or if the video itself was beautiful to me. The movie that Fog & Floodlights was cut from was a government made movie about bringing telephones to rural towns and how good it will be. It is mostly about life in this small town, but there's a beautiful sub-plot about a budding romance. The footage you see in the video is nearly all the time the two of them are on screen. I created new harmonies and new stories by cutting to rhythm and movement between scenes that emphasizes inner dialogue and emotional depth. Those kinds of things move me, the little beautiful things in the Public Domain, especially the occasional masterwork shot of a home video of a family road trip in New Mexico. The videos of families now aged, the videos of very early film with those now dead. I hope to give them new life in this medium. As they say,
So it goes.