Basil Cole (mild effects, dulce melos) is a musician, writer and performer. After earning his BA, double majoring in Studio Art and Creative Writing from the University of Iowa, he moved to New York City to attend the poetry MFA program at Brooklyn College CUNY. He has since collaborated with artists, choreographers, fashion designers and musicians on a variety of projects both in the U.S. and abroad. For years he has studied various somatic, movement and performance modalities. He currently lives in Belgrade, Serbia and is pursuing doctoral studies in Fine Arts Theory.

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Dulce melos is a compositional and performance practice based around the hammered dulcimer. It is most often applied to live sound scores for dance, film soundtracking, street performance and intimate concerts for the elderly, sick or bed-bound. One can hear traces along the path of the instrument’s original dissemination: from South Asian drone to traditional British reels to Appalachian mountain tunes to the piano and organ music of the American minimalists.