TOADSTOOL SHADOW
Toadstool Shadow is an elfcore music & arts collective. Their music is psych-pop. Toadstool Shadow is also a conceptualist art project. The concept is that there is another realm, hiding all around us, that we neither see nor comprehend.
They are creating an all-original three part fairy tale opera about a visionary rabbit. It is in the tradition of French and German fairy tale operas of the 18th century, in which serious stories are told through supernatural imagery.
Part two, Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf, is both a movie and an album. The album came out on the full moon of August 22, 2021. The film premieres in Canton, Ohio on September 9, 2021. In it, Teenage Bunny is 19. He deliberately goes back under the toadstool and revisits the visionary landscape of his youth. Later, he goes to see a psychiatrist, to learn if his visions are real, dreams, or delusions.
Half of the songs on Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf are sung by an all-star cast of guest singers, including Sam Salazar (Wheels, Speaking Suns), Rory Papania (Wheels, Speaking Suns), and Rob Heiliger, the young Johnny Cash of southern Ohio. Special guest musicians including David Byrne (Speaking Suns), William R. Crocker, and Gub Pedrotti (Kyleen Downes Band).
In part one, 2020's Rainbow Nights, seven-year old Bunny is caught in a rain storm. He gladly takes shelter under a large toadstool. As the rain stops, night falls. Bunny then makes his way home through the rainbow night, encountering a strange world of elves and faeries. Arriving home, amazed but exhausted, Bunny knows, like Dorothy, that there is no place like home. In 2019-2020, Toadstool Shadow performed Rainbow Nights twice with a live band, actors, and stage set. Five of its songs found their way onto WYSO, the Dayton, Ohio NPR radio station.
As of August 2021, six songs from part three, Journey to Glass Mountain, have been composed and partially recorded. Its story is a closely guarded secret.
Toadstool Shadow is Chris Till (composer and director); Nightshade the Elven Queen (vocals); Larry Halpern (organ); Malcolm Oberon Till (Bunny); Eli Bowsman (videographer); Sayre Hudson (actor and technical advisor); Arielle Johnson (actor and graphic artist); Romy Farrar (actor, percussion); and a host of guest musicians, actresses, and actors.
They are creating an all-original three part fairy tale opera about a visionary rabbit. It is in the tradition of French and German fairy tale operas of the 18th century, in which serious stories are told through supernatural imagery.
Part two, Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf, is both a movie and an album. The album came out on the full moon of August 22, 2021. The film premieres in Canton, Ohio on September 9, 2021. In it, Teenage Bunny is 19. He deliberately goes back under the toadstool and revisits the visionary landscape of his youth. Later, he goes to see a psychiatrist, to learn if his visions are real, dreams, or delusions.
Half of the songs on Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf are sung by an all-star cast of guest singers, including Sam Salazar (Wheels, Speaking Suns), Rory Papania (Wheels, Speaking Suns), and Rob Heiliger, the young Johnny Cash of southern Ohio. Special guest musicians including David Byrne (Speaking Suns), William R. Crocker, and Gub Pedrotti (Kyleen Downes Band).
In part one, 2020's Rainbow Nights, seven-year old Bunny is caught in a rain storm. He gladly takes shelter under a large toadstool. As the rain stops, night falls. Bunny then makes his way home through the rainbow night, encountering a strange world of elves and faeries. Arriving home, amazed but exhausted, Bunny knows, like Dorothy, that there is no place like home. In 2019-2020, Toadstool Shadow performed Rainbow Nights twice with a live band, actors, and stage set. Five of its songs found their way onto WYSO, the Dayton, Ohio NPR radio station.
As of August 2021, six songs from part three, Journey to Glass Mountain, have been composed and partially recorded. Its story is a closely guarded secret.
Toadstool Shadow is Chris Till (composer and director); Nightshade the Elven Queen (vocals); Larry Halpern (organ); Malcolm Oberon Till (Bunny); Eli Bowsman (videographer); Sayre Hudson (actor and technical advisor); Arielle Johnson (actor and graphic artist); Romy Farrar (actor, percussion); and a host of guest musicians, actresses, and actors.