Virtutes Occultae (2017/2021)
An album of 18 pieces for six retuned pianos that combines. One of my increasingly rare “absolute music” pieces, this work explores the expressive qualities of tuning and it’s interactions with form, style, and genre. The tuning of the pianos extends Partch’s concept of O-tonalities beyond his usual 11-limit to a 55-note per octave collection between the six pianos and pays tribute to LaMonte Young’s Well Tuned Piano with the E-flat tonic note. This work is unique in my output as it was written using a human-machine loop where I explored the mixture of algorithmic and “hand-made” composition using MIDI rolls and MAX; the performance score was made after the work was completed for live performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPwthPJLN8o (LIVE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpHSC8eWWL8 (computer realized)
Star Maker Fragments (2020)
Written for TAK ensemble as a studio work, the piece mixes chamber ensemble with electronic sound. Star Maker Fragments sets excerpts of Olaf Stapledon’s 1937 science fiction work of the same name, where a disembodied protagonist from Earth travels to other worlds, universes, and dimensions. Written on the eve of World War II by a pacifist-socialist physicist, this novel allegorizes our human experiences and societal structures in a way that remains surprisingly relevant.
https://takensemble.bandcamp.com/album/star-maker-fragments
Provenances, concerto for viola and sinfonietta (2022)
An acoustic concert work that relates to birth trauma. In this piece I try to create an emotional journey, drawing from personal experience, Romantic notions of form, modal structures, and breathing patterns.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1z3pga0spy3qpq/Brook%20-%20Provenances.mp4?dl=0
The Machine Stops (2021)
Sets excerpts of E.M. Forster’s 1911 novel of the same name, depicting the discontent of central character with the purely cerebral existence of a post-apocalyptic world where humanity lives in a giant “machine” underground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMUGD8ZTsqY
Apperceptions (2020)
An album of me improvising on electric guitar with my “Scuffed Computer Improviser,” an audio-corpus based AI improviser built in MAX.
https://taylorbrook.bandcamp.com/album/apperceptions