Miles Brown (born 4 January 1978) is an Australian

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

player, composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, music curator and sound artist. Best known for his work with Australian

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

electronic act The Night Terrors, Brown has also performed with

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

, Laurie Anderson, Goblin, Black Mountain, Mick Harvey, Alexander Hacke, Danielle de Picciotto,

Bardo Pond Bardo Pond are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1991, and who are currently signed to London-based label Fire Records. The current members are Michael Gibbons (guitar), John Gibbons (guitar), Isobel Sollenberger (flute and vocals), Cl ...

, Heirs and The Narcoleptor.

Biography

Brown was born in Hobart, Tasmania, and developed his practice in the experimental

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...

scene of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. He is a student of Russian theremin virtuosa

Lydia Kavina Lydia Evgenevna Kavina (; born 8 September 1967) is a Russian-British theremin player, based in Oxfordshire, UK. The granddaughter of Léon Theremin's first cousin, Soviet anthropologist and primatologisMikhail Nesturkh Kavina was born in Mosco ...

, the first cousin twice removed of Léon Theremin (the inventor of the instrument). With his band The Night Terrors, Brown has explored the theremin as a lead instrument in an electronic

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

scenario. The Night Terrors have released three albums: ''Back To Zero'' (2009), ''Spiral Vortex'' (2014) and ''Pavor Nocturnus: Composition for Grand Organ, Theremin, Electronics and Percussion'' (2014), three EPs: ''The Night Terrors'' (2002), ''Lightless'' (2003) and ''Monster / Lasers For Eyes'' (2012), and have toured Europe and Australia with Hawkwind, Goblin, Melt-Banana,

Serena-Maneesh Serena-Maneesh (previously spelled Serena Maneesh, sometimes shortened to S-M) is a Norwegian alternative rock band from Oslo. Biography The team of musicians who each contribute to the band's sound is organized around songwriter Emil Nikolaisen ...

and Black Mountain. The Night Terrors are often described as

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

soundtrack music. Brown has also worked extensively with Australian experimental

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

band Heirs, touring Europe and Australia supporting Alcest,

Primordial Primordial may refer to: * Primordial era, an era after the Big Bang. See Chronology of the universe * Primordial sea (a.k.a. primordial ocean, ooze or soup). See Abiogenesis * Primordial nuclide, nuclides, a few radioactive, that formed before ...

and

Årabrot Årabrot is a Norwegian noise-rock band established in 2001, originally from Haugesund, but with a current creative base in Djura and the Oslo-based record label Fysisk Format. Name The band is named after a garbage dump in Haugesund, Norway. Et ...

, and contributing to the records ''Fowl'' (2010) and ''Hunter'' (2011). In May 2014 Brown was commissioned by the

City of Melbourne The City of Melbourne is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne. In 2018, the city has an area of and had a population of 169,961. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. The ci ...

to compose an album of music for the Melbourne Town Hall's Grand

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

, the largest grand romantic organ in the Southern Hemisphere. ''Pavor Nocturnus: Composition for Grand Organ, Theremin, Electronics and Percussion'' was performed by The Night Terrors, recorded on

Friday the 13th Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, which happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. ...

of July and launched on

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

31 October 2014. The album was released by the label Twisted Nerve Australia, a joint imprint between Dual Planet and UK producer / music archivist

Andy Votel Andrew "Andy Votel" Shallcross (born 4 November 1975 in Marple Bridge, Stockport, England) is an English musician, DJ, record producer, graphic designer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records. ...

. A special edition was released by UK cult movie soundtrack labe
Death Waltz Recording Company
/ Mondo, home to film composers such as John Carpenter, Goblin,

Fabio Frizzi Fabio Frizzi (born 2 July 1951) is an Italian musician and composer. Born in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, he is best known for his film scores and was a frequent collaborator with horror director Lucio Fulci. Frizzi is the older brother of the ...

Angelo Badalamenti Angelo Daniel Badalamenti (March 22, 1937 – December 11, 2022) was an American composer, best known for his work scoring films for director David Lynch, notably '' Blue Velvet'', the ''Twin Peaks'' saga (1990–1992, 2017), ''The Straight St ...

, Steve Moore and

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

. Miles Brown’s debut solo album ''Séance Fiction'' was released in December 2015 on Death Waltz and It Records in Australia. His solo material explores the

and

analogue synthesiser An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...

in the realms of dark wave,

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

and cosmic electronics. In 2019 Brown debuted The Narcoleptor - his new experimental collaboration with classical harpist and vocalis
Mary Doumany
The Narcoleptor's debut EP was released that year on Nosferatunes Records. Brown's sophomore solo album ''The Gateway'' was released by Death Waltz in 2020 to celebrate with the 100th anniversary of the theremin. ''The Gateway'' features a contemporary expansion of the classic theremin sound in the style of 'gothic sci-fi techno'. Brown plays the Moog Etherwave Pro theremin employing both its familiar heterodyne voicing and controlling analogue synthesisers via CV. In 2021 The Narcoleptor released their debut LP ''Transmogrification'' on Nosferatunes. The album explores the

microtonal Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...

capacities of theremin, analogue electronics, post-

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

lever harp and voice.

Discography

Solo

*2020: ''The Gateway'' – Death Waltz Originals *2019: ''Shudder Speed'' (single) – Nosferatunes *2015: ''Séance Fiction'' – Death Waltz Originals / Mondo / It Records *2014: ''Electrics'' (single) – It Records

The Night Terrors

*2014: ''Pavor Nocturnus: Composition for Grand Organ, Theremin, Electronics and Percussion'' – Twisted Nerve Australia *2014: ''Spiral Vortex'' – Homeless *2012: ''Monster / Lasers For Eyes'' (12" EP) – OSCL /

Seed Records Seed Records has been the name of multiple record labels. 1970s American label Seed Records was a record label started in 1972 by Paul Clark, a musician involved in the Jesus music movement. The label ran until circa 1981, when he started ...

*2009: ''Back To Zero'' – Exo / Trendkill / Homeless *2003: ''Lightless'' –

Unstable Ape Records Unstable Ape Records was an Australian independent record label. Founded in Tasmania, it functioned out of Melbourne between 2001 and 2013. Unstable Ape's focus tended primarily towards indie rock and roll, but also expanded its interest to conte ...

*2002: ''The Night Terrors'' –

The Narcoleptor

*2021: ''Transmogrification'' LP – Nosferatunes *2019: ''The Narcoleptor 12" EP'' – Nosferatunes

Studio Collaborations

*2022: Grace Cummings – 'Fly A Kite' – ''Storm Queen'' - ATO Records *2019: Black Lung – 'NXIVM II' – ''NXIVM'' – Ant-Zen *2019: Jess Ribeiro w/ Mick Harvey – ''Wildflowers'' – Remote Control *2019:

Cat Hope Catherine Anne "Cat" Hope (born 11 March 1966), is an Australian composer, musician and academic. She started her music and academic careers in Perth and relocated to Melbourne in 2017. Her opera, ''Speechless'', was first performed in 2019 at ...

/ Monash Art Ensemble 'The Dark Hip Falls' – ''Here Now Hear'' – FMR Records *2013: Sankt Otten – 'Mach bitte, dass es leiser wird' – ''Messias Maschine'' – Denovali *2011: Antoni Maiovvi – 'Murderfunk Night Terrors Remix' –''Trial By Bullet'' –

*2011: Heirs – ''Hunter'' – Denovali / OSCL *2010: Heirs – ''Fowl'' – Denovali *2009: Little Birdy – '' Confetti'' –

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

Film Score

*2019: ''Volatilis'' (with The Narcoleptor) directed by Jenna Eriksen *2016: ''Dark Whispers – Volume 1'' (anthology), segment: ''Watch Me'', directed by Briony Kidd *2015: ''Our Extra Sensory Selves'' directed by Allison Gibbs – Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, UK *2015: ''Insomnolence'', directed by Kiefer Findlow

Live Score

*2017: ''Crossing'' – with Unconscious Collective, House of Vnholy, J.P. Shilo, Alexander Hacke and Danielle de Picciotto,

Dark Mofo Dark Mofo is the winter version of the MONA FOMA festival, also held in Tasmania. With many of its events taking place at night, it celebrates the darkness of the southern winter solstice and features many musical acts, large scale light insta ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. *2017: ''RE(PURPOSE): THE MVMNT'' – with Natalie Abbott,

Dancehouse (Melbourne) Dancehouse is a centre for independent contemporary dance in the Carlton North area of Melbourne, Australia. It was established in 1992 by a group of independent dance practitioners at the Carlton Hall in Princes Street, formerly occupied by the ...

*2015: Miles Brown & Drill Folly – ''

The Seashell and the Clergyman ''The Seashell and the Clergyman'' (french: La Coquille et le clergyman) is a 1928 French experimental film directed by Germaine Dulac, from an original scenario by Antonin Artaud. It premiered in Paris on 9 February 1928. Synopsis The film fo ...

'' directed by Germaine Dulac – Fabrica Gallery,

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, UK

Videos

"Speaking In Tongues"
from ''The Gateway'' (2020), directed by bl00dsp0rts
"Shudder Speed"
single (2019), directed by

Geoffrey O'Connor Geoffrey David O'Connor is an Australian indie pop musician and producer based in Melbourne. He released his debut studio album ''Liquorice Night'' in 2007, under the alias of Sly Hats. O'Connor has since released the solo albums ''Vanity Is For ...

"I (excerpt)"
from ''The Narcoleptor EP'' (2019), directed by Jenna Eriksen
"Feeder"
from Miles Brown – ''Séance Fiction'' (2015), directed by Agostino Soldati
"Apparition"
from Miles Brown – ''Séance Fiction'' (2015), directed by Agostino Soldati
"Megafauna"
from The Night Terrors – ''Pavor Nocturnus: Composition for Grand Organ, Theremin, Electronics and Percussion'' (2014), directed by Agostino Soldati
"Hunter"
from Heirs – ''Hunter'' (2012), directed by Brent Stegeman and Damian Coward

References

External links

Miles Brown Official WebsiteMiles Brown at DiscogsThe Narcoleptor Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Miles Living people Theremin players Australian electronic musicians 1978 births Australian multi-instrumentalists Musicians from Hobart