Paul Brody (born in 1961 in Seattle) is a US-American sound installation artist, composer, trumpeter, and writer based in Berlin.
Brody spent most of his youth in San Leandro, California, where his struggles with dyslexia led him to find his voice in music and poetry.
He learned from such poets as Denise Levertov, Bill Knot, Derek Walcott and Charles Simic and was often invited to read for literary events.
Citing influences from Joseph Beuys, Charles Ives, Samuel Beckett, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, along with the story and folklore collecting traditions of Studs Terkel and Alan Lomax, Brody uses oral history to create word and sound-orientated narratives from documentary material.
In addition, the voice-melody reveals both impersonal and personal information: origin, family history, travels, but also emotional state and physical condition.
Brody's first major sound installation was featured at the Jewish Museum Berlin's 2011 Heimatkunde (local history) Exhibit.
Five Easy Pieces explored the notion of home by asking people who live in Berlin to describe how they view themselves in relation to their adopted city.
The installation includes Swiss filmmaker Dani Levy, Afro-German writer Katharina Oguntoy, Indian curator Mini Kapur, teachers Anna and Helmut Franz, and Brody himself.
Der knapp zwanzigminütige Hörfilm des amerikanische Musikers Paul Brody reißt die oft so perfekt inszenierte Oberfläche der Kunstform Oper auf, lässt etwa Sänger intim plaudern oder befragt Strafgefangene in Alabama zu ihrem Verhältnis zur Oper, genauso wie deutsche Passanten... Brodys Klanginstallation fängt diesen Moment des Intimwerdens wunderbar auf: Opernsänger, die über ihre ersten bewussten Erfahrungen mit ihrer Stimme plaudern - die meisten dieser Sängern fangen dann prompt an, Kinderlieder zu singen - nicht erzwungen, mehr als klangliches Beispiel für ihre Anekdoten.Voices of Help (2016-2017) was a three-room documentary sound installation at the Youth Museum Berlin.
The piece explored concepts of help through interviews with community and social workers around Berlin's so-called Rote Insel, or Red Island, an erstwhile socialist stronghold in Schöneberg.
As the 2020 Artist in Residence at the Museums Quartier at the Tonspur: Kunstverein Wien sound art space, Brody combines the idea of Klangfarbenmelodien with speech-melody composition.
The libretto of Paul Brody's upcoming work will be constructed from interviews with local residents about love, and the music is derived from note-for-note transcriptions of the melodies of the recorded voices.
The spoken voice has its own narration, independent of subject matter, formed by the speaker's life history: family background, geography, age, mood, perhaps even genetic memory.
Despite all its expressive power, our speaking voice is usually just a servant of words—except in extreme cases: crying, laughing, utterances inspired by food and sex.
Following operatic tradition, each part of 5 Mini Operas in Ordinary Language begins with a short overture – a mini-homage to one of Brody's primary musical influences, Anton Webern.
The young musicians, playing a variety of styles, hailed from Guatemala, Canada, the United States, and Eastern and Western Europe.
In 2013 Brody produced a short piece for the Berlin Stories series of National Public Radio, entitled How I didn't meet Diana Ross.
In 2017 Brody produced a WDR feature exploring cultural perspectives of the German constitution and transformed his Munich Kammerspiele Artist in Residence project, Talking Melody-Singing Story, into a radio art piece for Deutschlandradio.
The group has enjoyed long stints at theaters such as MC93 House of Culture in Paris, the Schaubühne and Volksbühne in Berlin, the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow, and Burgtheater in Vienna.
In 2016 Brody was Artist in Residence for the Munich Kammerspiele Opera Department, where he played a singing roll on the trumpet for an experimental production of La Sonnambula.
The group has performed extensively in the United States, Canada, and Europe and has recorded seven albums for US-American, German, and Polish labels.
The CD presents extended compositional techniques with electronics, strings and vocals featuring Meret Becker, Clueso, and Jelena Kuljic.
The CD won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Bestenliste in the "Grenzganger Kategory" (German Recording Prize Best of List 2014).
Sadawi's second album on Enja, Vanishing Night, is inspired the by literaturary and theater works of Mary Cappello, Czesław Miłosz, and David Marton.
Along with Sadawi, Brody has performed and recorded both solo and in collaboration with many artists, including John Zorn, Kent Nagano, Wim Wenders, Blixa Bargeld, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Orb, David Moss, Tony Buck, Shirley Bassey, Ran Blake, Alan Bern, Frank London, and Michael Rodach, Clueso, 17 Hippies, Semer Ensemble, The Other Europeans, Danial Kahn and The Painted Bird, Barry White and The Gincident.
Radio Mephisto wrote, 'Aber auch starke ästhetische Seiten gibt es an dem Abend, insbesondere die musikalischen Arbeit von Paul Brody.
* Paul Brody Octet: "Turtle Paridise" (99 Records 1995) Musikschule Wedding Berlin (1998-2015) Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin (2009- 2014) Cracow Jewish Culture Festival (2010-2011) Yiddish Summer Weimar (2012-2013) University of Virginia Guest Artist Lecture (2018) Rhode Island University Guest Artist Lecture (2018)