AUDITION w/ Live Score by Order of the Illusive

Name: AUDITION w/ Live Score by Order of the Illusive
Start: 2025-10-18T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Epsilon Spires

Schedule

Sat, 18 Oct, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Epsilon Spires | Brattleboro, VT

Controversial Japanese Auteur Takashi Miike's infamous masterwork AUDITION (1999) is among the most shocking bait-and-switch acts of film history... Order of the Illusive is Zach Layton (17 string bass and electronics), Geoff Gersh (guitar and electronics), and Bradford Reed (pencilina, percussion).
AUDITION (115 Mins). One of the most notorious J-horror films ever made, Takashi Miike's masterwork begins as a reserved, melancholy, almost Ozu-esque romantic comedy about a lonely widower (Ryo Ishibashi) who enlists the help of his film producer friend to stage a fake audition in order to find his ideal new wife. The film then turns into… something very, very different. The false pretense of the audition helps him find the answer to his romantic dreams in the form of a young, soft-spoken and submissive ballerina (Eihi Shiina), so beautiful and sweet that he overlooks red flags such as that strange laundry bag writhing on her bedroom floor... an intense experience, AUDITION is a delicately crafted cinematic slow-burn with a truly shocking outcome that proves the adage, “Be careful what you wish for.”
Order of the Illusive is a trio of musicians (Bradford Reed, Geoff Gersh, and Zach Layton) dedicated to the re-interpretation of silent film soundtracks. Their approach to live scoring uses the sounds of experimental and ambient rock (ie. Can, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sunn O))), Pink Floyd and Brian Eno) to bring a sonically-immersive experience of silent film to contemporary audiences. They have previously performed a live soundtrack for EARTH (1930) at Epsilon Spires, and have also created original scores for numerous films including Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Caligari, Metropolis, Faust, Joan of Arc, and many more.
Bradford Reed (pencilina and drums) is Brooklyn, NY based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer who fights and tames the idiosyncrasies of the pencilina, an original instrument of his own design and construction which he’s performed with worldwide over the last three decades. He played with King Missile III (and produced 4 of their records) and in the Blue Man Group’s original band. He currently plays with Satellite and the Harpoonist, Ohmslice and Anthems of the Void. He’s composed for film and television including the music for the first season Superjail! on Adult Swim and 3 seasons of Ugly Americans on Comedy Central and has had residencies at The Sundance Composer’s Lab, The Ucross Foundation, Pioneer Works and The Banff Center for the Performing Arts.
Geoff Gersh (guitar) is a guitarist, composer and improviser based in the NYC area. He explores the sonic boundaries of the electric guitar with and without the aid of electronic devices and found objects to produce sounds one would normally not associate with the guitar. His music moves between the worlds of ambient, drone, improvisation and experimental music. Geoff has had the opportunity to perform and collaborate with Pauline Oliveros, Jonathan Bepler and many other musicians, choreographers and visual artists domestically and abroad. He has 3 CDs on Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Label as well as a number of self released titles under the name Ambient Fields including the latest CD, Ólafsfjörður, released in early 2020. Geoff has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Meet the Composer, American Music Center, Creative Connections Arts Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and has participated in the Banff Early Fall Musicians in Residence Program (Andres Segovia Memorial Endowment), Banff Winter Musicians in Residence Program (Banff Centre Artists’ Award), Listhus Moving Lights Residency in Olafsfjordur, Iceland and Audiotalia Summer Camp in Barcelona, Spain.

Zach Layton (17 string bass) is a guitarist, composer, curator, teacher and visual artist based in New York's Hudson Valley. His work explores emergent visual and auditory phenomena occurring in space, time, sound and light. He has composed orchestral music for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and the String Orchestra of Brooklyn and has performed and exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, the Kitchen, MoMa/PS1, ISSUE Project Room, Roulette, EMPAC, Eyebeam, WNYC New Sounds Festival, International Computer Music Festival, Experimental Intermedia, Performa, Exit Art, Sculpture Center, Transmediale Berlin, SCOPE Art Foundation, Audio Art Festival Krakow and many other venues in New York and worldwide. Zach is also founder of the experimental music series, “Darmstadt: Classics of the Avant Garde” (co-curated with Nick Hallett), former co-curator of the MoMa/PS1 WarmUp music series and former curator of Issue Project Room. Zach has received grants from the Netherlands America Foundation, Turbulence.org, NYFA, Experimental Television Center, Danish Council for Visual Arts, Jerome Foundation, Signal Culture, Wave Farm and recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2015 Grants to Artists Award. Zach is currently a professor of music at Ramapo College of New Jersey.