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composer	Chris Brown (b. 1953)
performers	Chris Brown, piano, live electronics
affiliation	BMI
label	Tzadik 8014http://www.tzadik.com
duration	09:48

about the music

Chris Brown:

"This is the final section of a larger solo work Retrospectacles, in which the whole range of sounds possible from the piano, including sounds made directly on the strings, the frame, as well as the keyboard, provide sources for live electronic transformation by an interactive computer program. The music is a narrative about memory: each sound evolving out of the last, each playback with constantly varying pitch/time of sounds that have recently passed."

about the composer		back to top

Chris Brown's (b. 1953) music stems from the intersection of many different musical traditions and styles, including classical music, traditional Indonesian, Indian, Afro-American, and Cuban musics, and contemporary American experimental music. He has worked extensively with electronics, from amplified acoustic devices and analog sound modification to custom-made interactive computer systems. Collaboration and improvisation have played a significant role in the development of his work.

Born in Mendota, Illinois, Brown studied composition and electronic music with David Rosenboom at Mills College in Oakland, California and with William Brooks and Gordon Mumma at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has received commissions from the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and Rova Saxophone Quartet, among others. From 1984 to 1995 he was a member of the group Room, which explored the intersection of composition, improvisation, and electronics. Between 1986-1997 he was also a member of The Hub, an ensemble of computer musicians who toured extensively in the US and Europe, participated in several multimedia projects, and collaborated with such composers as Alvin Curran, Pauline Oliveros, and Ramon Sender. Brown is an active solo pianist and has performed and recorded with the Glenn Spearman Double Trio at festivals in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Other collaborators include Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, Dave Douglas, Barry Guy, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, Wadada Leo Smith, and John Zorn.

Brown's recent works bring interactive electronic music into new performance venues with audience participation. The recent 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 La Bienal de Radio in Mexico City, Mexico. An installation involving networked rhythm machines spread throughout a large space called Talking Drum has been produced in Montreal, San Francisco, and the Netherlands. Brown has also produced online interactive music websites such as www.sfmoma.org/crossfade.

Brown's music and performances have been recorded on the Artifact, Centaur, Ecstatic Peace, Sonore, Sparkling Beatnik, and Tzadik labels, among others. He has published articles on his approach to live electronic music in Computer Music Journal and Leonardo Music Journal, and has been an artist-in-residence at such institutions as STEIM in Amsterdam, the Nethlerlands; Institute for Studies in the Arts at Arizona State University; and Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. Since 1990 Brown has taught composition, electronic music, world music, and contemporary performance practice at Mills College, where he is also co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music.

related websites
http://www.cbmuse.com