David Brown
(b. 1956, Melbourne, Aust.) has been involved in the Melbourne experimental, art rock/punk rock scene since the mid-seventies with such groups as False Start, Signals and Dumb and the Ugly. The first two of these groups began from associations made around the time he was completing a diploma of fine arts.
Current projects include punk jazz band bucketrider, lazy an improvising duo with percussionist Sean Baxter, improv/sound art group Western Grey with Baxter and Philip Samartzis, psychedelic electronic duo Terminal Hz with KK Null from Japan, prepared improvisational group Pateras/Baxter/Brown, electric free jazz group Embers as well as more occasional groups The Greg Kingston Big Band and The Crowded Foxhole, the latter with son Louis Peake.
The focus of the solo project candlesnuffer has increasingly centred on the development of composing techniques which meld opposing streams like conventional electro-acoustic methods with noise and rock and also the development of a vocabulary of tiny acoustic sounds enlarged outside their normal context for performance and composition.
In all these projects Brown has continued to develop a vocabulary that runs the gamut from rock bassist through experimental guitarist to sound artist. In addition, his activities as a solo improviser and composer have been consolidated by, or germinated from, a return to education with the aim to research the relationship between digital recording and improvisatory techniques, concluding in an M.A. completed at RMIT in 2001.
David Brown has performed regularly at the What Is Music? festival since 1996, the Melbourne and Wangaratta Jazz festivals, the Articulating Space festival plus featured performances at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 2002, the Podewil Centre in Berlin in 2003 and extensive tours of numerous European cities with Pateras/Baxter/Brown in October 2004, November 2006 and May 2007. In 2005 and 2006 respectively Brown made contributions to the soundtracks of the motion pictures 'Wolf Creek' and 'Rogue' composed by Franc Tetaz and also to the soundtrack 'Au Revelateur', composed by Philip Brophy, plus live performances of the latter.
email: db@candlesnuffer.orgRead a profile of Dave at Cyclic Defrost
Summary of Band Involvements
1978
False Start: bass guitar, guitar. With David Tolley: synthesizer, Dure Dara: percussion, James Clayden: voice/film.
1978 - 83
Signals: bass guitar, guitar, organ, percussion. With David Wadelton: bass guitar, guitar, organ, percussion, violin, voice, Chris Knowles: organ, percussion, synthesizer, Philip Thompson: drums, percussion.
1983
Skeleton: bass guitar. With Jamie Fielding: keyboards, synthesizer, Philip Thompson: drums.
1983 - 85
Mulch: bass guitar. With Mark Ewenson: drums, Tom Fielding: tenor saxophone.
1985 - 87
Ultratune: bass guitar. With Robert Corbett: guitar, Terry McDermott: alto saxophone.
1987 - 93
Dumb and the Ugly: bass guitar, guitar. With John Murphy: drums, synthesizer, Michael Sheridan: guitar.
1992 - present
bucketrider: bass guitar, microtonal bass guitar, guitar. With Sean Baxter: drums, percussion, voice, Tim O’Dwyer: alto/bass saxophones, bass clarinet, shawm, Adam Simmons: soprano/tenor/baritone saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, James Wilkinson: trombone, euphonium. Earlier lineups included: Fergus Armstrong: guitar, Greg Hinchcliffe: bass guitar, Rob Lee: guitar, Chris Lewis: drums, Bill McDonald: bass guitar.
1995 - present
Lazy: guitar, mini-discs, CDs, voice. With Sean Baxter: drums, percussion, CDs, voice.
1996 - present
Terminal Hz: guitar, processing. With KK Null: guitar, processing, Sean Baxter: drums, percussion.
1996 - present
The Crowded Foxhole: bass guitar, voice. With Louis Peake: drums, percussion, voice, conducting, Sean Baxter: drums, voice, Tim O’Dwyer: alto saxophone, bass clarinet.
1998 - 2000
Dreamland Happy Times For All: guitar, voice. With Robin Schmidt: synthesizer, CDs, Anna Womersley: bass guitar.
2001 - present
Western Grey: electroacoustic guitar. With Philip Samartzis: CDs, synthsizers, Sean Baxter: drums, percussion, junk.
2002 - present
Pateras/Baxter/Brown: prepared guitar. With Anthony Pateras: prepared piano,
Sean Baxter: drums, percussion, junk.
2003
Witches: acoustic bass guitar, microtonal electric bass. With Tim O’Dwyer: saxophones,
bass clarinet, Darrin Moore: drums.
2003 - present
Morpho: acoustic instruments, electric bass, electric guitar,samples,treatments, re-structuring and production. With David Wadelton: guitar, theremin, synth, vocal, samples, field recordings and structure.
2005 - present
Embers: microtonal electric bass. With Sean Baxter: drums, Adam Simmons: saxophones, Kris Wanders: Tenor saxophone.