OJAI COCOON PERFORMANCES / GUEST ARTIST COLLABORATION SERIES

OJAI COCOON PERFORMANCES / GUEST ARTIST COLLABORATION SERIES

“Beauty and the Beats” with Sonic Butterfly & Star Goes Nova

Saturday, June 24, 2023, 7pm

Tickets $25/adults and $15/kids. Cash at the door or buy your tickets on Eventbrite

Andrea & Christine will be presenting an awesome mix of beautiful long-string harp and piano duets and high energy dance songs like their YouTube Billboard EDM Top 40 song “Moonlight Beat.”

The Ojai Cocoon is Andrea’s studio and performance venue.

RSVP to andrea@sonicbutterfly.com to receive the location, parking information and all the details.

PAST EVENTS

PAST EVENTS

Super Sonic Butterfly Dance Party

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Come to the Ojai Cocoon and let’s dance to fun songs with Sonic Butterfly live.

Sonic Butterfly Quartet

Sonic Butterfly / Andrea Brook, Christine Law / Star Goes Nova on keyboard, Chris Murphy on violin, and Brad Ranola on drums
Saturday, November 19, 2022
Sonic Butterfly / Andrea Brook: www.sonicbutterfly.com
FB @sonicbutterflyproductions
IG @sonicbutterflyofficial
Sonic Butterfly is a two octave, acoustic, chromatic, long-string harp created and performed by acclaimed musician and installation artist, Andrea Brook. The strings are at minimum 60ft long and span out over the audience, transforming indoor and outdoor theaters, buildings, and gardens into a stunning immersive musical instrument. Sonic Butterfly creates rich longitudinal vibrations with ascending overtones, “it’s like being inside YoYo Ma’s cello.”
Sonic Butterfly has transformed architecture and natural environments into large-scale immersive musical instruments since 2013. Featured presentations include the historic SXSW, Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.
Star Goes Nova / Chrisine Law: www.stargoesnova.com
FB: @stargoesnova
IG @star.goes.nova
Star Goes Nova is an EDM trailblazer, creating fantastical sonic soundscapes using her 115 year old grand piano with power drums and deep bass music. She blends instrumental and electronic elements, transcending time, space, and thought.
More widely known as bassist Christine Law in Southern California, she toured and recorded with the famous and the obscure. With a career starting by touring and recording with Martha Davis during her hiatus from the Motels, she quickly became known as a bassist in Los Angeles clubs. Christine linked up with Jan Kuehnemunde’s (Vixen) “Drawing Down The Moon” project. Her first radio airplay was with hardcore band Tantrum, later charting on college radio with Charles Law & Jagged. Star Goes Nova has recently been collaborating with Grammy winners John Baffa and Evren Goknar, and platinum selling songwriters Suzanne Paris and David Holster. You’ll hear fantastic collaborations with different artists on Star Goes Nova pieces.
Chris Murphy Violin: www.chrismurphymusic.com
IG & FB : chrismurphyviolin
“violinist/songwriter/improviser/looping artist
Chris Murphy has been composing and performing original music for the fiddle for 36 years. He has 21 albums to his credit as a leader and another 10 albums as a producer/co-writer. Influenced by folk, jazz, classic & world music, Chris thrives in the crossroads of live performance & improvisation in front of a live audience.
Brad Ranola drums:
FB and IG @bradranola
Originally a classical percussionist, the past 29 years has taken Brad Ranola to share his talents in Percussion, Ukulele, and Music Production worldwide. He’s worked with Grammy award-winning artists such as Daniel Ho, Michael Bublé and the late Glen Campbell.
Brad has been fortunate enough to have taught and performed at venues from the Walt Disney Concert hall to Minute Maid Park.
Sonic Butterfly Long-String Meditation
Wednesday, October 5, at 7pm
The Sonic Butterfly Long-String Meditation is a music meditation under the incredible long-strings of Sonic Butterfly, Andrea’s design of 60ft long-string harp. Lie beneath the golden strings and allow the longitudinal vibrations to cleanse you of stress as the ascending overtones inspire your ears, heart and soul.

Divasonic / Lynda Arnol is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer / music producer, and touring musician, who’s sound has varied through her 25 year, fiercely DIY career, touching on every electronic music genre accompanied by her transcendent, angelic flute and soulful vocal deliveries. Divasonic and Sonic Butterfly together will be truly Super Sonic!

Sunday, June 5, 2022 at 5pm

Lynda Arnold, founder of Sonic Devas Divine Feminine Sound Meditation Experience, is a Sound Meditation Facilitator, Vocalist & Multi-Instrumentalist, Composer and seasoned Performer on a life long mission to build healthy communities through the power of sound and music. She offers sound healing workshops, private sound baths, singing for wellness sessions at some of the top meditation and yoga studios in Los Angeles and beyond. Lynda has appeared and collaborated at Earthdance, Chopra Foundation, Bhakti Fest, Donna Karen/UrbanZen, Alex Grey’s Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, Mindvalley LA Live, The Shift Network, SXSW, Lightning in a Bottle Festival, UNICEF Events, Burning Man and Lucidity Festival among others. Her intention is to provide a gateway for people to reduce stress, transform consciousness and heal through sound and meditation. She received a Certificate in ‘Sound, Voice and Music Healing’ at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco in 2010, has multiple music degrees and over 25 years of music education and performing experience.

As a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer and music producer, she has spent years collaborating with other artists and bands and touring in support of her releases as Divasonic. Her sound has varied through her 25 year, fiercely DIY career, touching on every electronic music genre accompanied by her transcendent, angelic flute and soulful vocal deliveries. Recent performance, production and sound healing projects include: Recording and performing with KSHMR, DJ Sol Rising, Desert Dwellers, Lucent Dossier’s ‘Human Initiation Project’, and directing an all woman ensemble of sound meditation facilitators and musicians called Sonic Devas. In addition, Lynda is continuing to release music under her artist name and music company, Divasonic.

Lynda is also a seasoned music, production and sound educator. She has taught at Pyramind Training Music & Audio Production School in San Francisco and Ex’pression College for the Digital Arts (Now SAE) in Emeryville. Lynda was a contributing writer for a Pyramind School textbook published by Alfred called ‘Music Theory, Songwriting and the Piano’ in 2013.  She has written tutorials and product reviews for popular online site Ask.Audio and teaches sound meditation and therapy courses at Panacea Holistic Institute in Long Beach, CA and the Soul of Yoga Institute in Encinitas, CA. In 2020 she launched the Divasonic Music Academy and her first online programs, Devotional Voice, the Yoga of Piano and Sound Meditation Design.

For more information, please visit: https://www.divasonic.com/

According to Indie-Source, Star Goes Nova creates “music that feels like it’s from another world…. Star Goes Nova is able to use her neoclassical influence to create a beautiful story with so much metaphorical meaning. It is truly an inspiration.” And the collaboration with Sonic Butterfly promises to be out of this world.

March 18, 2022 at 7pm

From Christine Law of Star Goes Nova:

I’ve always thought of myself as an intrinsic soul, finding meaning in space and time and thought.  Music is the magical dimension that connects us all to the real and the unreal. I create epic stories that combine real instruments with electronica, transcending past and future, told through my 115 year old piano, power drums and deep bass music. These sonic manifestations are empathic spaces to stargaze, gather personal power or share thoughts from other worlds.

More widely known as bassist Christine Law in Southern California, I’ve toured and recorded with the famous and the obscure; credits include hardcore band Tantrum, Theo Mordey (Jesus Christ Superstar), Charles Law & Jagged (college radio), Grammy winner John Baffa and platinum selling songwriters Suzanne Paris and David Holster.  You’ll hear fantastic collaborations with different artists on Star Goes Nova pieces.

Power and beauty are my inspirations. I follow anything Space and often the Falcon 9 rocket or Hubble galaxy sonifications are in my music.  I have majestic baroque Friesian horses, the black feathered Viking horse ridden by knights – there is also a bit of their ancient nobility in the dubstep bass of my songs!

Magical forces are transforming me and as Star Goes Nova, I have become a music composer, sound engineer,  producer, multi-instrumentalist and performer on the Southern California scene. My inspirations are Seven Lions, Leah, Leo Z, Pink Floyd and Illenium. Star Goes Nova is the fantasy come true of my technical imagination, hardcore rock band, EDM festival and high school orchestra experiences.

We are truly epic beings, built from primordial realities and reaching for future worlds. Let’s connect and experience sonic dimensions together!

Find out more about Star Goes Nova – http://www.stargoesnova.com

David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” vocalist, singer/songwriter Rebekah Del Rio and Sonic Butterfly / Andrea Brook.

Sunday, September 22, 2019, 5-8pm

Singer/songwriter Rebekah Del Rio, www.rebekahdelrio.com, as seen in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive”, is well known for her unique style which is perhaps best represented in her signature song, the wrenchingly beautiful ballad “Llorando”, a Spanish-language version of Roy Orbison’s “Crying,” On the strength of that song, Rebekah moved to Nashville where she was signed to Irving Azoff’s label, Giant Records. Rebekah opened for Rod Stewart at the 25th Annual WEA convention, and cut her first album, called “Nobody’s Angel.”

Just before Rebekah moved back to Los Angeles, David Lynch cast her as herself in his nightmarish hymn to L.A., “Mullholland Drive”. Her noteworthy performance has been universally praised as “a dazzling star turn,” by John Powers in the L.A. Weekly, to “uniquely twisted,” and “utterly enthralling,” by Gregory Weinkauf from the New York Times. In a Village Voice interview Lynch describes his partnership with Rebekah as a “happy accident.” “Working with David is like a dream”, says Rebekah of her experience with the famous director. Rebekah has written a song with Mr. Lynch and has worked with the ‘Master of Strange’ on an Internet series called “Rabbits”, opposite Naomi Watts, which was eventually included in David’s new film “Inland Empire.”

Ms. Del Rio was received with a standing ovation at the 12th Annual Rainforest Foundation Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall after singing “Llorando” a capella. She was later joined in this concert by Sting, Sir Elton John, & James Taylor.

Ms. Del Rio’s talents are presented in award winning films such as, “Southland Tales”, “Sin City” & the King of the Hill, Family Guy. Prison Break Finale, Quattro Noza and Winters Dream directed by Joey Curtis. Mia Sarah, Christian Dior, “This Teacher” by Mark Jackson. And most recently Twin Peaks The Return on Showtime.

The platinum album selling group, Il Divo and Rebekah have recorded her signature song “Llorando” for the groups Album Wicked Game that garnered Rebekah her first Certified GOLD Record. Ms. Del Rio opened Ted Danson’s Oceana charity with Seth MacFarlane’s 70 piece orchestra to a standing ovation.
Rebekah is featured on UK designer Gareth Pugh studio with a beautiful video directed by Lady Gaga’s Director Ruth Hogben.

2019 brought forth a collaboration with fashion designer Sandrine Phillippe for Paris Fashion Week 2019 and Slamdance for the Los Angeles Film festival prize winner This Teacher by Mark Jackson.

Ms. Del Rio has collaborated with Christina Aguilera’s Award Winning Producer/Songwriter, Heather Holley, in her cinematic album
“Love Hurts ♥ Love Heals” on 11/11/11.

“Love Hurts ♥ Love Heals” is an 11 song album dedicated to Rebekah’s late son, Phillip Craig DeMars, who lost his 4 year battle with cancer in 2009. This album is about love and the duality of this thing we call amor.

Rebekah has recorded a full length album celebrating the Cuban Maestro Sergio De Karlo releasing 9 never before released boleros from the master of the Cuban bolero. Her philanthropy work with children in Los Angeles and Cuba has brought so much joy to her and has continued the legacy of her late some Phillip with The Phillip C. DeMars Foundation.

2019 will bring forth a new album for Ms. Del Rio with La Bella Diva Del Rio, celebrating the great Italian Divas if the 1970’s.

Super Sonic Butterfly Dance Party featuring Andrea Brook on her design of immersive long-string harp, Sonic Butterfly, as she plays along with high energy dance tracks.

Friday, July 26, 2019, 7:30-10:30pm

Since 2001, Andrea Brook, has presented visually and sonically stunning performances, transforming architecture and natural environments into immersive musical instruments. She has performed around the world from the Grand Theater in Shanghai to Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, a cathredral in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, to a 9th Century Castle in Italy. Andrea has created shows for a long list of corporate clients including Microsoft, Rolls Royce, Caterpillar, Cirque du Soleil, and Toyota. She has performed at world-renowned festivals including Lollapalooza, Coachella, Burning Man, and the World’s Fair, as well as at Performing Arts Centers including Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, Mesa Arts Center, and the El Rey Theatre.

Andrea presents solo, duet, trio and full band performances in a wide variety of genres. She has collaborated with a long list of incredible musicians and visual artists including Grammy Award winning flute player, Steve Gorn, Carnegie Hall vocalist Rebecca Comerford, David Lynch’s vocal muse and Twin Peaks star Chrysta Bell, and Grammy winning keyboardist from the band Wilco Mike Jorgensen, as well as symphony orchestras, opera, djs and dance companies.

In 2013, Andrea designed her own long-string harp, Sonic Butterfly, www.soncibutterfly.com. Sonic Butterfly is a two octave, chromatic, acoustic long-string harp with 60 foot strings and projection and LED wings. The production is visually and sonically stunning, transforming architecture and natural environments into an immersive musical instrument.

Sonic Butterfly performs throughout the globe including featured presentations in the historic El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, the Atlanta Motor Speedway, a grand cathedral in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. Sonic Butterfly performs for corporate clients including Rolls Royce, Lincoln Motors and Caterpillar, for festivals around the world including Costa Rica, Mexico, Bulgaria and the US, and in theaters like the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, the Regent Theater, and Libbey Bowl.

The audiences proclaim that Sonic Butterfly is “mesmerizing,” “thought provoking,” “electrifying,” “spectacular,” “like being inside YoYo Ma’s cello.”

“…then there was the wonderful long-string harp  — referred to as the Sonic Butterfly — created and performed by Andrea Brook. Like a magician, Brook stroked electronically sensitized strings that stretched the entire length of the performance space, causing melodic pulsations that added a magical dimension.” Jim Farber, San Francisco Classical Voice

“Sonic Butterfly is the perfect entertainment… larger than life to impress people who have seen it all before!” Rob Sandolowich, VP, Westbury National Show Systems

“The three days of performances of Sonic Butterfly for an audience of 4,000 each night could not have been more successful!  Sonic Butterfly exceeded all exceptions on all counts, a home run on every level!” Mark Rubinsky, MC2

 

David Lynch’s muse and collaborator, vocalist Chrysta Bell, and Wilco’s lead pianist and keyboardist, Mike Jorgensen, join Andrea Brook / Sonic Butterfly for a super sexy, superstar Ojai Cocoon.

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Chrysta Bell (her first name), http://www.chrystabell.com, is a musician, recording artist, songwriter and actress who incorporates dynamic theatrical and media elements into unique performance experiences.

She has toured 36 countries as a headlining act and shared the stage with the likes of Willie Nelson, Brian Setzer, Donovan, Moby, the band Yes, members of the band King Crimson, Adrian Utley of Portishead, David J of Bauhaus, among others.

Chrysta Bell is a long time collaborator with artist David Lynch. Since first appearing on the soundtrack for the surreal epic Inland Empire with a song they co wrote entitled “Polish Poem”, the pair have released two pop noir albums, This Train (2011) and Somewhere In The Nowhere(2016), both produced and co written by Lynch. The collaboration entered a new chapter when Lynch cast Chrysta Bell in her television acting debut as FBI Agent Tammy Preston in Twin Peaks : The Return in 2017 .

Also in 2017 she released We Dissolve, a full- length studio album with Mercury Prize- winning producer John Parish, long time P.J. Harvey collaborator and producer. The new album includes guest contributors Adrian Utley, keyboardist Geoff Downes of bands Asia and Yes, and drone metal guitarist Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))).

Chrysta Bell is currently working on a new album that will be released in early 2019.

Mikael Jorgensen,  www.mikaeljorgensen.com, is lead pianist and keyboardist for the band Wilco as well as a member of the band Pronto. He first appeared on Wilco’s 2004 release, A Ghost Is Born. On that album, he received songwriting credit for “Hell is Chrome” and “Theologians”. In 1999, he released the album “Western Hamlet” with the group Movere Workshop.

Jorgensen, an ex-Chicago-based engineer and now full-time musician initially came aboard Wilco in 2002 to perform real-time sound manipulations on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tour, sitting just off stage left, triggering the samples and sonic flourishes required to bring the YHF material to life. As the tour rolled on, Jorgensen gradually moved onto the stage itself, manning his laptop as well as taking on more and more keyboard duties. Since his days in Chicago, Mikael has relocated to Brooklyn, NY, where he currently resides.

“It became apparent that Mike was a very proficient piano player that could do a lot more than we were using him for,” says Wilco singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy. “At that point, he started becoming a full-fledged member of the band, contributing parts to the new songs and even handling more of the nuts and bolts architecture of the older songs.”

Prior to his days in Chicago and with Wilco, Mikael honed his musical skills in New Brunswick, NJ, developing his production skills, collaborating with local musicians and DJing. He has earned a degree at DeVry University in North Brunswick, NJ.

Mikael Jorgensen’s father was born in Denmark but moved to the United States in the 1950s, and his mother was born in Norway, Hedmark.

 

Kaleidoscope is a full band show with Grammy and Academy award winner, Steve Gorn on flute, soprano sax and clarinet, the brilliant vocal talent of Rebecca Comerford, versatile violinist Chris Murphy, Brad Ranola on drums, Greg McFall on bass, and Andrea Brook / Sonic Butterfly stringing it all together. 

Saturday, December 8, 2018

Andrea Brook / Sonic Butterfly has been busy. The Ojai Cocoon has offered her the perfect platform to create a full service performing arts company that has 2 solo shows, 3 duet offerings, a multi-media show, and now a full band show called Kaleidoscope.

Saturday, December 8, 2018, Andrea will bring the whole team together and present her full band show, Kaleidoscope. Scroll down to check out 2 videos with Steve Gorn, 2 videos with Rebecca Comerford, and a video with Chris Murphy, and then imagine all 3 together with the rhythm section of Brad and Greg and Sonic Butterfly / Andrea Brook stringing it all together! A kaleidoscope of beauty, grace and energy.

Dynamic duo drummer, Brad Ranola, and bassist, Greg McFall, join Andrea Brook / Sonic Butterfly for a high energy performance called Butterfly Rhythm.

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Video coming soon!

Brad Ranola, https://www.facebook.com/ranola: Brad Ranola has worked worldwide as a performing musician since 1997 and has been a music educator before that. Steeped deeply in the tradition of classical percussion, his playing also employs elements of Cuban, Brazilian, and West African music. This melting pot is where Brad has concocted a very unique sound and style. Brad’s sound has given him the opportunity to share stages with jazz greats such as Faye Carol and the late Louie Bellson as well as Latin Jazz All-star, Pete Escovedo.

Greg McFall, www.gregmcfall.com: Raised on payday Happy Meals, a lack of supervision, and unconditional love, Greg’s journey began in San Jose, where he grew up and attended SJSU, getting a B.A. in jazz bass performance. He began playing gigs around the Bay Area with pianist Alan Chang (MD, pianist for Michael Buble), vocalist Faye Carol, and veteran reedsman Don Pender. After moving to Alan’s futon near USC in 2000, they recorded their first album with Tom Jackson and Brad Ranola, forming a band called Your Future Lovers, which has recorded with Grammy-winning producer J.J. Blair (Johnny Cash, Ryan Adams, Kelly Clarkson) and Grammy-winning engineer Brian Warwick (Ludacris, Weird Al Yankovic, Michael Buble). Greg started meeting and playing with other great LA musicians and developed his skills as a sideman, playing bass and singing backup in many groups and genres. In 2014, Greg graduated with an M.M. in composition from CSULA, and has been composing music for commercials and TV as well.

Recent highlights include performances with Bridget Everett (Trainwreck, Comedy Central, Inside Amy Schumer) at San Francisco’s Clusterfest, and for her sold out shows at the El Rey Theatre and Largo, indie pop songstress Clara-Nova for SXSW and KCRW’s Summer Nights, singer-songwriter Curtis Peoples, synth-pop band Cataline, and folk violinist and singer-songwriter Chris Murphy. His debut solo album, titled, “Trophy Wife,” was released in 2016. He also wrote and produced the musical finale of the web series Wait Crimes, winner at the IFS Film Festival. Greg has recently become a professor and part-time lecturer in the Commercial Music Department at CSU Los Angeles, helping young musicians develop the skills they need to turn their passion into a career.Dub Sutra is a downtempo sound healing project featuring worldwide influences of live instruments, breakbeats, electro-dub reggae, and harmonious chanting that is perfect for chill out, meditation, and yoga. Dub Sutra’s passion is creating a harmonious mind space by guiding listeners on journeys of discovery and balance, using the proven science and primordial principles of sound healing. They are popular for creating an uplifting and relaxing soundscape, and their live musical journeys are loved by yogis and dancers around the world.

Dub Sutra’s downtempo bliss in collaboration with the long-strings of Sonic Butterfly promises a gorgeous night of healing with sound.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Dub Sutra is a downtempo sound healing project featuring worldwide influences of live instruments, breakbeats, electro-dub reggae, and harmonious chanting that is perfect for chill out, meditation, and yoga. Dub Sutra’s passion is creating a harmonious mind space by guiding listeners on journeys of discovery and balance, using the proven science and primordial principles of sound healing. They are popular for creating an uplifting and relaxing soundscape, and their live musical journeys are loved by yogis and dancers around the world.

Dub Sutra is the collaborative project of husband and wife producers, Chris and Charlotte Proud, and their worldly array of poets and guest musicians including the work of John Mark Aladeen, Priya Deepika, Tiger Moon, and Dr. Maya Angelou just to name a few. With over 20 years of experience and extensive research on the effects of sound healing, Dub Sutra’s music combines the use of modern sound technology with ancient vibrational healing techniques to take listeners on an inward cosmic journey and stimulate a positive state of mind. Their music has been featured in numerous publications including Spirituality & Health Magazine, and LA Yoga Magazine. They have been a #1 Bestseller on Yogitunes, have performed live for thousands of fans and have amassed millions of streams on online music platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, and Pandora.

Since their first time performing together in 2009 for the Deepak Chopra Musical Satsang, Chris and Charlotte have grown their sound tribe into a global sensation. Having shared the stage with musical greats like Snatam Kaur, Desert Dwellers, Nahko & Medicine for the People, and Deepak Chopra, they have played for innumerable crowds at music and yoga festivals including Envision Festival Costa Rica, Hawaii Yoga Fest, Lucidity, Kansas City Yoga Con, 5 Elements Festival, Rise Big Sur, Sedona Yoga Fest, Roots in Bliss Festival, Pranafest, and many more. In addition to their own tours, in 2014 and 2015 Dub Sutra performed to rave reviews for Yoga Rocks the Park, a touring Yoga festival in 10 cities across the United States, and they have contributed to numerous charity music events for organizations including Feeding America, and the One Love Foundation.

Dub Sutra’s first album, “The Rise of Downtempo” creates a blissful state of mind with an hour long continuous mix of inspirational downtempo electronic music that takes you on a journey akin to the style of Pink Floyds’ “Dark side of the moon”. The song, “Song on the Wind” tells the story of a modern day man finding freedom and peace in a connection with the spirit of nature. Watch the video here. Through music and visual art, Dub Sutra is creating a divine experience for all of the senses. Dub Sutra’s music has been described poetically as: “An angel is calling you from across the waters of your own soul. A gentle blessing is reminding you to embrace reality as a dream.” Read a review of the album from Spirituality & Health Magazine here.

In 2017, Dub Sutra released their second full-length album, All is Love is All where they were honored to work with many talented artists and poets as well as secure the rights to use Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still, I Rise.” Her voice and poetry is featured in their latest single, “Maya’s Dance.” Read a review of the album from Spirituality & Health Magazine here.

Whether you are practicing yoga, meditating or simply welcoming a wave of peace into a busy day, Dub Sutra invites you to enjoy the wholeness and grace of the musical moment.

From Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center, Rebecca Comerford’s brilliant voice and socially conscious message bring you a performance full of power and beauty.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Hailed by Variety Magazine as a “standout character actress” in the cult classic comedy, The Living Wake, as “the future of lyric theatre in America” by Classical Voice Magazine, and “brilliant” by the Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Rebecca Comerford’s voice and sincere dramatic intensity has been felt in concert halls, theaters and movie screens across America and Europe.

As a concert soloist she has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fischer Hall/Lincoln Center, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Symphony Space, The Orpheum Theatre Memphis, Vienna Staatsoper and Aspen Music Festival. Her latest one-woman show “Songs of Resistance and Rebellion” recently made it’s debut at New York City’s iconic Neue Galerie as part of the Cafe Sabarsky Cabaret Series, with collaborator and Broadway Music Director, Anna Dagmar on the piano.

As an actor she has been seen in such films as the SXSW Audience Winner, Explicit Ills, opposite the Roots frontman, Tariq Trotter, Iranian film maker Shirin Neshat’s experimental short, Issar, The Living Wake opposite Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg and as a writer, composer and lead in the period western, Sulphur Mountain.

In addition to her original compositions and librettos, Rebecca co-founded Ojai Youth Opera Company in 2014, the first autonomous youth opera theatre in America, dedicated to telling original stories with a socially conscious message for youth. OYO has brought some of the best and brightest in the Opera field to mentor young singers ages 7-18 to the idillic Ojai Valley every summer. These artists include Metropolitan Opera star, Falk Struckmann, contralto Nicole Mitchell and conductor, Kostis Protopapas.

Rebecca is a proud member of SAG/AFTRA, Actors Equity and ASCAP. She holds a Bachelors Degree from Eastman School of Music and a Masters from Manhattan School of Music.

World Renowned Grammy & Academy Award Winning Flute Player: Steve Gorn

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Steve Gorn has performed Indian Classical Music and new American Music on the bansuri bamboo flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet in concerts and festivals throughout the world. His work with the flute is featured on the 2011 Grammy winning recording, “Miho – Journey to the Mountain,” with the Paul Winter Consort, and the Academy Award winning Documentary film, “Born into Brothels,”  He is also featured on Grammy nominated cds:  Paul Simon, “You are the One,” Angelique Kidjo’s, “Oyo,” Silvia Nakkach/David Darling, “Long & Longing,” and Paul Avggerinos, “Bhakti.”

His unique blend of Indian music and contemporary world music can be heard on recordings with Paul Simon, Glen Velez, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Winter, Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Tony Levin, Adam Rudolph, Layne Redmond, Richie Havens, Alessandra Belloni, Badal Roy, Simon Shaheen, Deepak Chopra, Robert Bly, Coleman Barks, and numerous Indian musicians. His numerous recordings include Luminous Ragas, the landmark Indian-Jazz fusion recording, Asian JournalPranam a jugalbandi with Barun Kumar Pal playing hansaveena, and Samir Chatterjee, tabla. His latest recordings are “Between Two Worlds,”  Rasika, with tabla by Samir Chatterjee, and Illumination, with Nepali flutist, Manose.  In addition to the landmark world music recording, Asian Journal, with Nana Vasconcelos and Badal Roy, he recorded ‘Wishing Well’ with Richie Havens, and in August, 2013, he performed at “Back to the Garden: A Day of Song and Remembrance Honoring Richie Havens“, at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock Festival.

Bernie Larsen & Cassidy Linder, the dynamic duo behind the Ojai Underground and Arts Exchange, bring their extraordinary song and dance to fill the Ojai Cocoon with love.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Bernie Larsen: Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and producer. Bernie has lived a charmed life for many years. He has recorded, toured, and produced an elite handful of artists most of which are Grammy Award recipients including Melissa Etheridge, Jackson Browne, Rickie Lee Jones, Lucinda Williams, and Public Enemy. He also spent six years as an original member of David Lindley’s legendary band El Rayo-X. He began his own record label Spinout Records over 20 years ago, and has produced dozens of records for artists around the nation, including records of his reggae band, Cry on Cue, and numerous solo records, the latest being released last year, Downward Dub.

Cassidy Linder: Cassidy began dancing at the age of 3, being trained in tap, jazz, ballet, modern, and more. At 17, she auditioned for a professional tap company in Chicago called Chicago Tap Theatre, and became the youngest member of the company. She performed and toured with them all over the midwest and in Europe for 4 years. She then spent some time in New York before moving to Ventura County, where she has continued performing and teaching. She spent a season performing with the tap group Pumping Metal in Oxnard, performed with the band Noble Creatures and poet Lady May, and has had her taps recorded as musical accompaniment. She has taught at the Ojai Recreation Center, is a featured guest choreographer at Nordoff High School, is on faculty at the Jill Johnson Dance Studio in Santa Paula, and recently returned from Chicago where she was on faculty during the summer intensive at American Dance Center. 

In January 2017, Bernie and Cassidy opened Ojai Arts Exchange/Ojai Underground Exchange, a multi-purpose performing arts and events venue. Cassidy instructs tap, ballet, and dance fitness classes during the day, and in the evenings Bernie hosts live performances in music, dance, film, theater, spoken word, comedy, and more. The Exchange has changed the tide in Ojai, creating a true listening room experience for both the performer and the artist. Bernie and Cassidy also perform together, Bernie sharing his music and songwriting, while Cassidy keeps rhythm with percussion and tap dancing.

website: www.OjaiArtsExchange.com

Bernie Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqW1XMpKTHE

Cassidy Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usTCl9WfycE

Andrea Brook / Sonic Butterfly solo performance including her original compositions and new work that was born out of the Ojai Cocoon.

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Since 2001, Andrea Brook has presented visually and sonically stunning performances, transforming architecture and natural environments into large-scale musical instruments around the world and in a wide variety of locations including a cathedral in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a children’s festival in Canada, a 9th Century Castle in Italy, a ski resort in Bulgaria, the Grand Theater in Shanghai, a temple in Vietnam, the remains of a ruined palace in Istanbul, Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the BVI, a fort in the Philippines, a city block in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and throughout the US including the Space Needle in Seattle. When describing her work, her audiences express themselves with words like “mesmerizing,” “thought provoking,” “astounded,” “electirfying,” and “spectacular.”  Paul Guzzone of Triple Z Music said, “Andrea Brook has an inspired imagination, is a great collaborator with a sensitivity to detail, and exhibits the highest level of professionalism.”

Andrea presents solo and multi-instrumental performances in a wide array of genres, classical, rock, world, and dance music. She has collaborated with a long list of incredible musicians and visual artists including Grammy Award winning flute player, Steve Gorn. She has created collaborations with symphony orchestras and dance complanies including the incredibly talented Denna Thomsen. In addtion, Andrea has created shows for corporate clients including Microsoft, Rolls Royce, Caterpillar, Samsung, Lincoln, Toyota, Chivas Regal and many, many more. She has performed at world renowned festivals including Lollapalooza, Coachella, Burning Man, the Shanghai International Arts Festival, La Calaca, the Envision Festival, Wanderlust, and the list goes on.

In 2013, Andrea designed her own long-string harp, Sonic Butterfly, to inspire audiences to release limiting beliefs and bring to the world who they truly are. Sonic Butterfly is a two octave, chromatic, acoustic harp with 60 foot long strings and projection and LED wings. The 60ft strings span out over the heads of the audience, placing them inside the instrument and creating a full sensory experience. The Ojai Cocoon, Andrea’s studio and performance venue was built in 2016 in Ojai, CA, where she delightedly calls home.

Violinist Chris Murphy brings “a unique fabric of world music” to dress up the Cocoon in a tapestry of talent.

Sunday, November 12, 2017

For 25 years, and with no sign of slowing, violinist Chris Murphy has made a living by writing, performing and recording original music. For Murphy, the path forward is charted by looking backward, to the troubadours and minstrels of ages past. Forget the exaggerated reports of the music industry’s demise. It’s only the record industry, a relative blip in the history of putting tones in sequence, that’s suffering. Music, and the opportunity to make a life’s work out of it, well, that’s not going anywhere.

“In another era,” he says, “I would have played square dances, and loved it. I would have been a court musician in Versailles in the 17th Century, or a violinist in a circus orchestra.” For Chris Murphy, inspiration spans eras and aesthetics, but the fundamentals are the same.

Born into an Irish-Italian family near New York City, Murphy was surrounded by the disparate and eclectic sounds of his neighbors’ traditional music. “I heard and was influenced by everything – from Italian-mandolin music, to bluegrass and folk, to Latin music,” he says. Inevitably, he discovered rock ‘n’ roll, claiming still further influence from some of rock’s most adventurous and eclectic icons: Lou Reed and Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson. “My real hero,” he says, “was David Lindley. Hearing him play fiddle and lap steel with Jackson Browne — that kind of esoteric, enigmatic soloing over songs is originally what I loved.”

He learned about Turkish and Indian music at Simon’s Rock of Bard College and then studied composition at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. A longtime instrumental dabbler, Murphy has mostly taught himself how to play percussion, guitar and mandolin, even some Eastern instruments, but he found his proper match at 22, when he picked up the violin. “It’s the one instrument you’ll find anywhere you go,” he says. “And it has a wonderful, charming kind of minstrel quality. I love all the myths surrounding it.”

Eventually, Murphy did as so many American adventure seekers had done before him: He sought his fortune in the West. Now based in Los Angeles, Murphy earns his living by teaching — guitar, mandolin and violin — working on music for films, and, mostly, by performing his work for audiences.

And that’s hardly at the exclusion of recording. To wit, Murphy has amassed a deep catalog of solo and collaborative albums and made cameo appearances on records by Har Mar Superstar and The Dandy Warhols, among others. Murphy’s recordings include the likes of Steve Hodges and Larry Taylor from Tom Waits’ band, Nels Cline (Wilco), Mike Watt (fIREHOSE), D.J. Bonebrake and John Doe (X, The Knitters), Herb Pedersen (The Desert Rose Band), Tim O’Brien, Joachim Cooder (Buena Vista Social Club), Joey Peters (Grant Lee Buffalo), Walfredo Reyes Jr. (Santana), Trevor Hutchinson (Waterboys, Lunasa) and Pat D’Arcy, L. Shankar (Peter Gabriel), Victoria Williams. In the last year alone, Murphy has written and recorded six new albums in a vast array of styles. Chris has also been featured on television programs such as ‘Til Death and The Ellen Degeneres Show; his diverse and chameleon-like talents make him a sought after composer and collaborator for film and television. Chris has also performed in over 40 US states, in England and in Ireland.

As he searches for new ways to communicate through music, fusing styles and techniques from across the globe — a unique fabric of world music, he calls it — Murphy finds his element on the stage, where spontaneity and improvisation reign. “To me, the music is liquid, and I’m looking to have some kind of experience.” he says. “I’ll twist and turn and hammer and mold and shape cut and paste the music to do that. We’ve never done a song the same way twice.” As ever, Murphy re-forges the past to make a new way.

Award winning guitarist, composer, singer-songwriter, Dave Cipriani, brings a touch of the mystic and ethereal with his blend of North Indian, World Music and Jazz.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Video coming soon!

Award-winning Guitarist/composer/singer-songwriter
Dave Cipriani touches the mystic and ethereal while still staying
grounded in this world.  With advanced studies in North Indian music in
India, an MFA in World Music Performance on guitar from the California
Institute of the Arts;  private studies of Jazz with Charlie Byrd,
Balkan and African music with Miroslav Tadic, and Indian music Ustad
Aashish Khan and Pandit Barun Kumar Pal, Dave reaches in to find the
authentic soul of music from everywhere.

 
Links:

Butterfly Women ~ 5 women sharing their unique, powerful and deeply authentic expression including Alarra Saress, akka b., Tory Elena, Onyay Pheori and Andrea Brook

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Alarra Saress is a composer, singer, sound designer, songwriter, and sacred sound ceremonialist. Specializing in rich, dreamy textures and soul-touching lyrical themes, Alarra brings 30 years of musicianship to her expression. Her musical journey started early as a classically trained pianist. Over the years she has cultivated a multi-layered approach towards healing through the intentional and technically gifted use of touch, voice, singing bowls, tuning forks, and most notably gongs. The magnificent and powerful 38″ Sedna gong has become one of her principle healing instruments. For two decades, Alarra has developed potent skills as a healing artist. Following her foundational BA in Philosophy she studied and received certification in Massage, Acutonics Sound Therapy, Ayurvedic Sacred Stone, Prenatal Bodywork, Aromatherapy, Holistic Health, Shamanic Studies, Spiritual Essence of Plants, Body Into Being: Advanced Energetic Somatic Training with Ray Castellino and Anna Chitty, and much more.She nurtures personal sanctuary for consciousness acceleration and spiritual evolution through harmonic medicine, compassionate touch, and deep listening. http://www.alarra.org

akka b.: TEDx. Talking Fool. Poem Maker. Wisdom Whore. Play Hunter. Rock Collector. Tree Lover. Heart Drencher——akka b. starts fires and walks away. Exposing her own process of Self-exploration, she has inspired countless people worldwide to engage the nuances of their life, activate creativity and reignite wonder. She teaches, she speaks, she makes, she writes, she shares, but mostly she shows…you how to get to “knowing” through not knowing and how to live more, by letting go and letting grow. “I like mirrors, that’s why I make poems; because I see how things reflect each other, even if they are very, very different. Fear interests me because it’s both blaring and allusive and it asks me to move through it no matter its form. Tip toeing between worlds, connecting what is unknown and unseen to that which is known and seen keeps me busy, even though if you catch me in the act it may look like I’m merely staring at a wall. I also like mountains and dirt and coffee shops and temples of every arrangement, and the possibility inherent in ancestors – unburied, and aliens uncovered, and babies and mothers of babies. I like courage. Heart-courage ya know? The moments where things break – open. And I like the journey to realizing that courage. The trembling lip, the laughing eye, the search for god: these are my interests.http://drunkloveheart.blogspot.com/

Tory Elena is a Southern California based artist whose work is a snapshot of visions born from her dreams of night and day. As a painter, illustrator, graphic designer, sculptor, and installation artist – art expands beyond a career to her very way of life. Bridging the worlds of sight and sound, Tory Elena explores synesthesia as drummer, vocalist, and composer in the band Sea At Last. She is also a board member of GYPSYPOP RECORDS. “Artist: [noun] A prime specimen of the deconstructed construction of the continuously implosive explosion.” http://www.toryelena.com/

Onyay Pheori is a vocalist, violinist, song writer, producer, recording & performing artist and actress based out of Los Angeles, CA. Onyay writes and produces music for film, tv, trailers and commercials.  She also collaborates with inspiring artists, producers and publishers in a range of genres for film and television as well. She has had domestic and international placements, including SYTYCD International Russia, Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, the trailer for the video game Devil May Cry 4 special addition, Satisfaction on the USA Network, the theme song for HDNET Movies, the official NBC trailer for the romantic comedy A to Z, and more! In the fall of 2014 Onyay released the EP, No More Waiting, with the title track being the campaign song for Beanpole commercials with Korean star Kim Soo Hyun and the song, Fever, in Fila and skin care ad campaigns. Onyay toured internationally with The Earthharp Collective from 2008-2014 and performed in the Finals of America’s Got Talent. Onyay recorded violin on a bonus track for Grammy winning Herbie Hancock’s “The Imagine Project” and wrote and recorded “The World is Ready” with Grammy winning producer, Jeff Bova, that was used in the tck tck tck campaign’s International celebrity PSA raising awareness for climate change.  Onyay has appeared in over 40 roles on stage and screen. Onyay began a 7 Year Quest called 33 Muses in 2005 when she started traveling to sacred sites opening up to the mysteries and frequencies beyond this world. Her process involves a receptivity and communication with the sounds and memories held in these places, translating them through her voice and violin as a sonic shapeshifter, becoming more human and more than human simultaneously.  Onyay’s otherworldly language and hypnotic melodies explore love, awakening, light, communion,angelic realms, other dimensions, freedom, illusion, consciousness, the peaks, the valleys and the journey of being human in a forever changing world. https://onyaypheorimusic.com/

Andrea Brook is an international performing artist, yoga teacher / life catalyst and public speaking / body language coach. As a musician, dancer and installation artist, Andrea has toured since 2001, presenting visually and sonically stunning performances and transforming architecture and natural environments into large scale musical instruments, including the Coliseum in Rome, the Space Needle in Seattle, the Temple at Burning Man and the Grand Theater in Shanghai. She has also been teaching yoga since 1998 and has lead workshops and retreats around the world including Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, the Omega Institute, the TED Conference, and festivals including Wanderlust, Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle and the Envision Festival in Costa Rica. Andrea’s own practice began as an Astanga practitioner; she studied in Mysore, India with Guruji, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, in 1998. Andrea returned to India in 2000 to study Integral Yoga in Rishikesh, India with Swami Vivekananda Saraswati. She also had the great pleasure to study mindfulness meditation with Thich Nhat Hahn, and has studied many styles of yoga with amazing teachers from all over the world. As a body language coach, Andrea has worked internationally with politicians and leaders of multi-national companies to support them to convey their true intention through the language of their bodies. Andrea began Sonic Butterfly Productions in 2013 to unite her talents. Sonic Butterfly is Andrea’s design of 26 string, chromatic, long-string harp. The 2 resonating chambers look like butterfly wings with 2 full octaves of strings shooting out on each side of the performer and over the audience. The company is based on the concept of transformation, like the butterfly, re-creating ourselves into the full expression of who we truly are with all of our beauty shining. http://sonicbutterfly.com

Producer, DJ, Multi-Instrumentalist, Oliwa!

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Oliwa is the moniker of Oliver Newell, a music producer and multi-instrumentalist based out of Ojai, California. His decades of experience as an upright/electric bassist have slowly given way to his current experimentation with live electronic music. His music is uniquely intertwines influences of contemporary electronic dance music, jazz, classical, dub reggae, and psychedelia, woven into intricate organic grooves and emotional textures.

Oliwa has performed at festivals and venues around the world with a wide assortment of bands, solo artists, chamber ensembles and orchestras. His endeavors include serving as the principle bassist of the Kona Symphony as well as playing bass with Columbian reggae artist Ras Sparrow, folk glam-a-billy rockers He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister, progressive big band The Industrial Jazz Group, and legendary LA psych band Jeffertitti’s Nile. He also performs his original works with his 9-piece band, The Pleasure Circus.

Recently he has been producing music for other artists (Shining Lion, Henry Wolfe, Ted Lennon, Sara Melson, Elisa Rose), performing with his live folktronica band, Radio Skies, and DJing on the side. He is a graduate from the composition program at California Institute of the Arts and is also a certified yoga instructor.

Shredder electric guitar player, Tobias Hurwitz, and lovestruck multi-instrumentalist, Teddy Jack, rock the Cocoon.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Tobias Hurwitz is a popular rock guitarist from Baltimore Maryland who divides his time between live performances, writing guitar books and teaching Skype guitar lessons to students throughout the USA and abroad. When he’s not revving up local football fans at M&T Bank Stadium as lead guitarist for The Baltimore Raven’s he stays healthy with yoga, meditation and a natural plant based diet.

Tobias has written 15 books on rock guitar, has over a million you tube hits, and has been widely published by the major guitar magazines. He won “Best Guitarist in the Mid-Atlantic” from the Music Monthly Reader’s Poll, was named “Baltimore’s Best Guitar Teacher” by Baltimore’s City Paper, received the MVP 2015 Award by The Marching Ravens, and is a Grammy nominee for the Music Educator Award. Tobias’s endorsements include PRS Guitars, Fractal Audio and Ernie Ball Strings.

Violinist/Vocalist, Deepak Ramapriyan, creates layers of beauty with jaw-dropping talent. 

Saturday, January 28, 2017

The Ojai Cocoon presents Sonic Butterfly with very special guest, Deepak Ramapriyan. Deepak, also known as “The Other Deepak“, is a virtuoso singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, actor, dancer and record producer known for evoking extraordinary experiences in listeners of all kinds. Classically trained in violin since age 4, Deepak lends his immense talent to elicit a remarkable range of emotion, from soul-centered meditative bliss to ecstatic jubilation, inspiring his listeners to go beyond the ordinary and access transcendent states of joy and spiritual communion. He is the lead singer and violinist for the pop/rock/electronic group Robot Nature.  He also still tours with his indie-rock band The BOLT, and the world sacred music band Breath of Life Tribe.  As a freelance musician, he has also played with great talents such as India.Arie, Rihanna, Jason Mraz and many others, as well as recently costarring on the television show “Modern Family” as well as the film “Bleeding Heart” starring Jessica Biel.

 

Video projection superstar and Chapman Stick stud, Nima Rezai, and drum master flash, Brad Ranola, launch the Ojai Cocoon with Sonic Butterfly Multimedia.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Presenting a Sonic Butterfly Multimedia Performance, an exciting collaboration between Andrea Brook/Sonic Butterfly and Nima Rezai/Merge Factory with Brad Ranola on drums.