Biography
This page uses content from the Michael Brook biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Michael Brook (born 1952 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, producer, and film music composer familiar with many disciplines including rock, minimalism and film scores. Along with Brian Eno, Brook is considered a founder of the ambient music movement.
Most famous perhaps for his work on U2's multimillion-selling 1987 album The Joshua Tree, and Peter Murphy's 1995 album Cascade, he is a specialist in timbre and texture. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1996 for his production work on Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's album Night Song. He is also known for many other contributions including the album Sleeps With Fishes which he made in 1985 with singer Pieter Nooten, and his solo work 1992's Cobalt Blue. He released another solo album in 2006, RockPaperScissors.
He toured as a member of the Sylvian and Fripp tour group, with the final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in December 1994 documented on the album Damage. He also opened the concerts with a solo set, featuring the Infinite Guitar with effects and sequencer backing.
Brook breaks many of the 'rules' of electric guitar. He does not use voiced guitar amplifiers, but instead plugs directly into a preamp to broadcast the sound using a variety of effects and processors, many of which he has pioneered. Among his inventions are the Infinite Guitar, played by The Edge of U2, a guitar outfitted with a feedback transducer to produce non-decaying sustain of any note. This design has been replicated by commercial devices such as an EBow and Fernandes Sustainer-equipped guitars. (An example of this sound may be heard in the opening of U2's "With or Without You" from The Joshua Tree.)
He has produced albums for Julia Fordham, Jane Siberry, U. Srinivas, Youssou N'Dour, The Edge, Balloon, and others. Brook has also written for a number of film soundtracks including the music for Albino Alligator, Mission: Impossible II and the new eco-documentarys, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and Who Killed the Electric Car?.
Selected discography
Studio albums
- Hybrid (1985) – mostly solo music as well as some tunes with Brian Eno and Roger Eno.
- Mustt Mustt (1990) – collaboration with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
- Cobalt Blue (1992) – solo record, mostly electric guitar.
- Live at the Aquarium (1993) – recording of a live concert, now packaged together with Cobalt.
- Night Song (1996) – second collaboration with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
- Star Rise (1997) - last collaboration with Khan, remix album of tracks from Mustt Mustt and Night Song.
- RockPaperScissors (2006) – most recent solo record.
Soundtracks
- Captive (1986) – co-writer/producer with The Edge.
- Albino Alligator (1997)
- Affliction (1999)
- Black Hawk Down (2001) - music composed by Hans Zimmer
- India: Kingdom of the Tiger (2002)
External links
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
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