Interview: Joel Mellin and the Intersection of Human Sensory Experience

“…Mellin is a prism for musical ideas. No matter how complicated or difficult to master an instrument is, he’ll find a way to make it work within a piece of music.”

-MICHAEL J CYRS, AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM, NOV 20, 2018
full interview here

Review: Gamelan Ensemble Hammers Out Ritual Rhythms of Bali

"...the program’s older music seemed to encourage stillness and meditation...By contrast, Mr. Mellin’s piece felt geared more toward continuous movement...evoking samba parades or even the kind of highly detailed electronic dance music that stuffs rhythms inside rhythms."

-BEN RATLIFF, NY TIMES, FEB. 9 2015

Music Emanating From a Factory Is Hardly Machine-Made
The Basilica Soundscape Festival Features an Eclectic Lineup

"Gamelan Dharma Swara...took up a giant circle in the middle of the floor and mesmerized the audience with sudden dynamic shifts and coordinated precision. Some pieces were centuries-old, some current; one, “Synesthesia,” by Joel Mellin, an ensemble member, went...into grooves and silences, in a way I haven’t heard gamelan music do before. The group’s set was one of the most talked-about performances all weekend."

-BEN RATLIFF, NY TIMES, SEPT. 14 2014

Review: An Outside Understanding

"An Outside Understanding offers an impressionistic series of vignettes that brings together two dancers – one with a disability, one without – in an exploration of individuality and difference. The staging is atmospheric, with music by Joel Mellin...there is much meaning to be gleaned from the abstraction."

-SARA KEATING, IRISH TIMES, SEPT. 17 2012

Absolut Fringe 2012: AN OUTSIDE UNDERSTANDING

"Are you on the edge of the circle figuring out the inner action or standing inside the circle and musing about the external world?...Joel Mellins lyricical soundscape counterpoint[s] the continuous interchange of the dancers, each quietly learning from the other."

-SEONA MAC REAMOINN, IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE, SEPT, 14 2012

Whirling Blades, on the Quiet and Personal Setting

"It is also one of the most satisfying dances I’ve seen in a while...Mr. Mellin’s sound score grows denser, more insistent in its understated industrial bursts as they dance, in tandem but decidedly apart: we might not know quite what the stakes are, but we know they are rising."

-CLAUDIA LA ROCCO, NY TIMES, FEB. 20, 2009