Please enjoy Tom's EPK on his Live Performances With Film

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Inspired by the Middle Eastern aspects of the film, Teasley, a world renowned percussionist, creates an exciting soundtrack for this magical 1926 film. The first animated feature length film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed was created by German visionary Lotte Reiniger using a silhouette technique inspired by shadow puppetry. In the film, a wicked sorcerer tricks Prince Achmed into riding a magical flying horse, which he then uses to embark on many adventures. While travelling, Achmed falls in love with the beautiful Princess Peri Banu, and must defeat an army of demons to win her heart. Teasley’s innovative world music score is based upon his collaborations with indigenous musicians in Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the West Bank and Jerusalem during his work as a Cultural Envoy for the U.S. State Department.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed Reviews

"Teasley is endlessly inventive and moves between a big percussion sound worthy of Mission Impossible action scores for fight scenes and some very sweet, spare melodic lines that bring out the nuance and textures of Reiniger’s world. He also employs his own voice in vocalizes that remind me of Indian ragas. Because the accompaniment was live, he was able to not only synchronize key sound effects throughout, but created elastic transitions, slowing down and pulling up a pattern at the end of sections which delineated the cinematic “acts” beautifully." - DCtheatrescene

 http://dctheatrescene.com/2015/08/14/the-adventures-of-prince-achmed-with-tom-teasley-review/

Endlessly clever and constantly entertaining, Teasley’s talents include playing so many instruments, from tablas to tambourahs, that it is often hard to comprehend that the resulting music is being played by one person. His use of “traditional world instruments” Teasley said, “makes me feel like I’m playing some instrument with each limb at all times.” - Arabnews.com

http://www.arabnews.com/news/806866

The original World Music score by Teasley more than matched what was projected on the screen. His music added appropriate powerful oomph, tender sensuality, and charming humor. The music was a symphony of the delicate or fraught with distress, dreamy or urgent, and even, at times with added mysteriously electronically distorted voices, not unlike a small choral group.

As my eyes gazed at the big screen drinking in the flickering images, I was also able to fix my eyes on Teasley using every limb of his body and the breath from his lungs to add colorful texture to the projected images. He was part of and not separate from the evening’s visual allure. He was clearly in some great physical shape to do all he did without appearing breathless or winded. - dcmetrotheatearts

http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2015/08/14/tom-teasleys-musical-accompaniment-of-the-1926-animated-film-the-adventures-of-prince-achmed-at-constellation-theatre-company/

 Tom Teasley’s one-man orchestrated and live-performed original score of The Adventures of Prince Achmed explores a trailblazing, revolutionary arrangement of cultural sounds including Afro-Cuban beats and Middle Eastern vibes. Amongst his one-man band, Teasley cleverly integrates the drums, symbols, recorder, centaur, xylophone, and synthesized singing including several other instruments as he jives along with an overhead projector displaying Rorschach-like figurines to create a uniquely crafted animated film. Teasley continues to navigate his sounds through world music incorporating Western Orchestrations. Exploring Afro-Cuban and Middle Easter music with incredible stamina throughout this fantasy animated film, Teasley described his process as delving into “ a lot of memorization.” Tom Teasley’s brilliant work is a must-see among all theatre-goers and patrons. - Mdtheatreguide

 http://mdtheatreguide.com/2015/08/theatre-review-the-adventures-of-prince-achmed-at-constellation-theatre/

Metropolis

Percussionist Tom Teasley performs his original live music accompaniment to a screening of Fritz Lang’s classic science fiction film Metropolis with a modern Techno soundtrack. In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the upper class, two persons from each class fall in love with each other. The two will have to stop a robot and its crazy inventor for creating more problems in the city of Metropolis, and make Metropolis a harmonious place. He performs on over a dozen instruments and ends with a talk back about the creative process and his experiences traveling and collaborating with musicians in the Middle East.

Metropolis Reviews

“Tom Teasley’s music – and his performance – were spellbinding from the get-go. In creating a soundtrack that uses both contemporary and traditional sounds, Teasley has found a way to bring immediacy to an already fascinating film. Performing to one side of Constellation’s large movie screen, he was surrounded by a myriad of percussion instruments ranging from the traditional (acoustic rig, bamboo flute, melodica and aquasonic) to the contemporary (electric keyboard, Kaoss pad, Handsonic synthesizer and a looping pedal). He masterfully blended the sounds of old and new instruments in a performance that clearly consumed his entire being and transported the black-box theater space to a higher aural plane. – Nicole Hertvik – DC Metro Theater Arts

http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2016/11/18/review-metropolis-constellation-theatre-company/

“Fortunately for Washington film buffs and fans of Constellation Theatre's global vision, we have composer Tom Teasley at the helm-a multi-instrumentalist who is as much at ease with digital technology as he is with traditional musicianship. Teasley's repertoire should be familiar to Washington audiences, and his years as a musical ambassador overseas-especially in the Middle East-clearly inform his work here. So in addition to the treat of seeing the film on the big screen for which it was intended, Teasley works his magic in his own pool of light. Your eyes dart back and forth, to see how he manages the action, and if you know the film by heart (confession: I do), the admiration for what's unfolding before your eyes and ears just grows.” – Broadway World

http://www.broadwayworld.com/washington-dc/article/BWW-Review-METROPOLIS-at-Constellation-Theatre-a-Showcase-for-Tom-Teasley-20161121

“Teasley brings an astounding collection of percussion and digital instruments into play. Ranging from a cowbell with a kickstand and an Iraqi frame drum (which he learned to play while serving with the State Department as a cultural envoy) on the traditional side, and a Roland HandSonic and a Kaossilator on the bleeding edge. It is normal to see him playing two instruments at once as a track he recorded earlier in the performance keeps playing.” – Marshall Bradshaw – DC Theatre Scene

http://dctheatrescene.com/2016/11/17/fritz-langs-silent-metropolis-meets-tom-teasleys-live-music-review/

Nosferatu

A brand new project is providing original musical accompaniment to one of the original “scare” movies. It remains still a creepy, chilling work of artistry. It is the 1922 silent expressionistic vampire film Nosferatu. What better motion picture for a dark night in late October, whether dark and stormy or not. Nosferatu was directed by F. W. Murnau. It is based upon Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror written work, Dracula. It predates Bela Lugosi’s 1931 performance in the sound movie Dracula.

 The amazing visual images in Nosferatu cry out for musical expression! This score will allow me to dig deeply into my collection of exotic instruments as well as my electronic instrument collection.

 I’ll be using, as usual, a collection of exotic acoustic instruments in combination with cutting edge electronics. One such instrument is the aquasonic. This is a metal instrument with spokes of varying sizes and different pitches that I bow with a cello bow. The instrument is filled with water thus creating a very eerie vibrato. I’ll also be utilizing digital looping which will allow me to create a virtual ensemble on the fly as I record performances and then use them as accompaniment. I’ll have my usual array of drums and percussion as well as a hand drum synthesizer.

German Dadaist avant-garde films

Tom has embraced the film medium as a source of inspiration and experimentation with his music, and the result is something unique and special. As for the basis of the music to accompany the films from the pre World War II 20th century, Teasley indicates the visual film is the basic superstructure. “Sometimes I will interpret an angular or circular gesture of the film with a similar stroke on a drum. In those instances it is interesting to see my gestures and how they interact with the original art.” Some of the films such as Rhythmus 21 and Symphonie Diagonal are very abstract with only angular and circular moving images that are interpreted like dance. The others such as Ghosts Before Breakfast and Lot in Sodom actually have characters but are still very abstract. For those films, Teasley’s music may be more theatrical as opposed to dance and draws from a variety of jazz, funk, African and Middle Eastern based rhythms.

In the Moment: An Interview with Tom Teasley on His Live Score for ‘Nosferatu’ on October 25th at Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA