Chris Brown (experimental musician)

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Chris Brown (born 1953) is a composer, pianist, and electronic musician, who creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles.

[edit] Biography

Born and raised in Chicago, he moved to California to study electronic music with Gordon Mumma and composition with William Brooks at University of California, Santa Cruz, and with David Rosenboom at Mills College. He was active early in his career as an inventor and builder of electroacoustic instruments; he has also performed widely as an improvisor and pianist with groups as "Room" and the "Glenn Spearman Double Trio." In 1986 he co-founded the pioneering computer network music ensemble "The Hub". He is also known for his recorded performances of music by Henry Cowell, Luc Ferrari, and John Zorn. He has received commissions from the Berkeley Symphony, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, the Gerbode Foundation, the Phonos Foundation and the Creative Work Fund. His recent music includes the poly-rhythm installation "Talking Drum", the "Inventions" series for computers and interactive performers, and the radio performance "Transmissions" series, with composer Guillermo Galindo.

His 1992 epic electroacoustic work "Lava", for brass, percussion, and electronics is also available on Tzadik Records. He teaches Composition and Electronic Music at Mills College in Oakland, where he is Co-Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM). He is not to be confused with R & B artist Chris Brown. Chris Brown’s music has evolved within the intersections of many different traditions and styles. Following early training as a classical pianist, he was influenced by studies of Indonesian, Indian, Afro-American, and Cuban musics, and then took off on branches provided by the American Experimentalists in inventing and building a personal electronic instrumentation. At first these were amplified acoustic devices; then he went on to build analog circuits that modified their sounds, and custom-made computer systems that interactively transformed them. More recently, he has extended this fascination with instrument building to the design of computer network systems that interact with acoustic musicians and with other computers and musicians connected over the internet.

Collaboration and improvisation have been primary in the development of his music for various traditional instruments and interactive electronics. He has had commissions for such pieces from the Rova Saxophone Quartet, the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, among others. He was a member with percussionist William Winant, saxophonist Larry Ochs, and electronic musician Scot Gresham-Lancaster of the pioneering group "Room", (1984-94) which explored the intersection of composition, improvisation, and electronics. His 1992 composition "Lava", for eight instruments and interactive electronics, is an hour-long, quadraphonic sound environment that virtuosically employs live-sampling to create spatially flowing counterpoints of timbre and rhythm.

As pianist with the Glenn Spearman Double Trio he has performed and recorded music in the free-jazz tradition at venues including the San Francisco and Monterey Jazz Festivals, the DuMaurier and Victoriaville Festivals in Canada, and in Europe. He has performed and recorded with such prominent and varied improvisors as Butch Morris, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Marilyn Crispell, Barry Guy, Ikue Mori, Dave Douglas, and John Zorn. He has also been active as a pianist in performing the music of composers such as James Tenney, Henry Cowell, Christian Wolff, William Brooks, David Rosenboom, John Coltrane, Luc Ferrari, and Terry Riley.

Between 1986-97 he was also a member of "The Hub", an ensemble of computer musicians who developed "Computer Network Music", a genre whose sound arises from the interdependency of multiple computer-music systems. The Hub toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe, released three different CDs, and collaborated with such composers as Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, and Ramon Sender. The Hub also participated in several media projects, including remote-site concerts (distance-musics), a live, video-generated realization of John Cage's chance-operations score "Variations II", and an interactive poetry/music piece for radio (supported by a grant from the InterArts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)).

Chris Brown's most recent works involve extending the experiences of interactive electronic music into new performance venues including audience participation. His recent project, the "TRANSMISSIONS" series, is a collaboration with composer Guillermo Galindo using four FM radio transmitters to interact with an audience carrying portable radios; it was premiered in May 2002 at the Bienal de Radio in Mexico City. An installation involving networked rhythm-machines spread throughout a large space called "Talking Drum" has been produced in Montreal, San Francisco, and Holland. A new series of concert pieces called "Inventions" have sprouted from the polyrhythm generating software for that piece, including "Invention #7", for piano, percussion, DJ, and interactive computer, which was premiered at the 2001 Other Minds Festival in San Francsico. He has also worked with programmer Phil Burk's TransJam/JSyn software to produce on-line interactive music websites (www.sfmoma.org/crossfade), and with programmer/composer Mike Berry in supporting the development of the "Grainwave" live synthesis software for the Macintosh. A project called "Eternal Network Music" used Grainwave instruments to produce simultaneous, collaborative concerts between California, Germany, and the East Coast.

He is a featured composer, performer, and/or producer on over 30 recordings of new music. These include CDs of his own compositions on labels including Tzadik, Centaur, Sonore, Ecstatic Peace, Sparkling Beatnik, and Artifact Recordings. He has published articles on his innovative approach to live electronic music in Computer Music Journal and the Leonardo Music Journal. He also authored the article "Pidgin Musics", on hybrid musical cultures, in the compilation volume "Arcana: Musicians on Music", published by Granary Books. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at such institutions as STEIM in Amsterdam, Institute for Studies in the Arts (ISA) at Arizona State University, and the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California.

Since 1990 he has also taught electronic music, composition, world music, and contemporary performance practice at Mills College, in Oakland, where he is a Professor of Music and Co-Director of the Center for Contemporary Music.

New works to be composed will pursue these future musical trends: 1) musicians with computers will play music in ensembles, and their software will interact with both other humans and other computers in performance; 2) electronic media will integrate ever more seamlessly with acoustic instruments by becoming more responsive to their musical signals and languages, creating extensions of human intelligence within networked sonic and visual environments.

[edit] Discography

  • 1980 "Earwig" with instrument builder Tom Nunn, cassette released by Essential Recordings, 16mm film by Eric Marin.
  • 1987 "Wayne Horvitz: This New Generation", original instruments performance, Elektra/Musician CDs, records, and tapes.
  • 1989 "Snakecharmer" Live Electroacoustic Music by Chris Brown, Artifact Recordings, CD.
  • 1989 "Room", Sound Aspects, CD.
  • 1989 "The Hub: Computer Network Music" Artifact Recordings, CD.
  • 1991 "The Virtuoso in the Computer Age -- I: CDCM Computer Music Series, vol. 10", piano performance, Centaur Records, CD
  • 1992 Room: "Hall of Mirrors", Music and Arts. CD.
  • 1993 Glenn Spearman Double Trio: "Mystery Project", piano and electronics performance, Black Saint, CD.
  • 1994 "Music from the CCM at Mills College: CDCM Computer Music Series, vol. 17", Centaur Records, CD.
  • 1994 Glenn Spearman Double Trio: "Smokehouse", piano performance, Black Saint, CD.
  • 1994 The Hub: "Wreckin' Ball", Computer Network Music, Artifact Recordings, CD.
  • 1995 "Conductions #11" by Butch Morris, original instruments performance, New World, CD.
  • 1995 "In C" by Terry Riley The 25th Anniversary Performance, keyboard performance, New Albion Records, CD.
  • 1995 "Lava" by Chris Brown, for brass, percussion and live electronics, Tzadik, CD.
  • 1996 "Duets", by Chris Brown, with Tom Nunn, William Winant, Ikue Mori, and Tom Djll, Artifact Recordings, CD.
  • 1996 Larry Ochs "The Secret Magritte", piano performance in ensemble including the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Marilyn Crispell, Barry Guy, Lisle Ellis, and William Winant, Black Saint, CD.
  • 1997 Rova's 1995 Live Recording of John Coltrane's "Ascension", piano performance in large ensemble including the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Black Saint, CD.
  • 1998 "Cellule 75", piano performance with William Winant, percussion of Luc Ferrari's composition, Tzadik CD.
  • 1998 "Non Stop Flight", electronic performance with The Hub on this live recording by the Deep Listening Band, Music & Arts, CD.
  • 1999 "New Music: Piano Compositions by Henry Cowell", piano performances by Chris Brown, New Albion Records, CD.
  • 1999 "Waves", composition and performance with Philip Gelb, shakuhachi on "between/waves", Sparkling Beatnik, CD.
  • 1999 Glenn Spearman's "Blues for Falasha", piano performance with the Glenn Spearman Double Trio, Tzadik, CD.
  • 2000 "Xu Feng", live electronics performance with a sextet of John Zorn’s compositions, Tzadik, CD.
  • 2001 "fuzzybunny", live electronic improvisations with the trio by the same name which also includes Tim Perkis and Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Sonore, CD.
  • 2001 "Oasis", opening track of a live computer music performance titled "knottyspine", on a compilation of music by composers from Mills College, including Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, John Bischoff, and Alvin Curran, CD.
  • 2001 "Talking Drum", binaural recordings of live electronic installations, and location recordings of traditional music and environmental soundscapes, Sonore, CD.
  • 2002 "Branches", recordings of "Invention#7", and "Alternating Currents", on Ecstatic Peace, LP.
  • 2002 "Transmission Temescal", binaural recording of installation of 20 boomboxes and clock radios on the decks of the Artship, the Artship Recordings, disc 47.
  • 2002 "Water", live electronics with Philip Gelb, shakuhachi, on "Visions: Performances form the EMIT series compilation CD.
  • 2003 "Headlands - Natto Quartet", extended piano improvisations with Philip Gelb, shakuhachi; Shoko Hikage, koto; and Tim Perkis, electronics, on 482 Music, CD.
  • 2005 "Best of the Data Disc 2005"

[edit] External links

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