Thom Brennan (born May 31, 1957 in Lubbock,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

) is an American electronic

ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

ian, composer and

synthesist 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 va ...

. Active since the 1980s with his first album ''Mountains'' (1987), he belongs to the scene of Californian pioneers of electronic music. His style encloses the principal traits characterizing the evolution from

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for it ...

's and

Morton Subotnick Morton Subotnick (born April 14, 1933) is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his 1967 composition '' Silver Apples of the Moon'', the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch. He was one of the foun ...

minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

to the form of electronic

new-age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

suite.

Works

Thom Brennan's music is realized almost exclusively with

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s, with rare use of samples and without any acoustic instrument. His production consist mostly of beatless soundscapes; however, in a few works which he himself calls ''rhythmic journeys'', Brennan employs percussive sounds and, more frequently, rhythmic synth patterns or timbral movements. His first work, ''Mountains'', was recorded on a 2 track stereo cassette deck in 1987; it was inspired by memories of Thom Brennan's childhood on an island in the East China Sea. This album was one of the most ambitious works of the so-called Los Angeles school; Steve Roach helped with the production. His compositions are largely inspired by nature, especially by American Southwest landscapes and by

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

forests. All this results in a neo-classical ambient impressionism distinguished by a strong visual approach, as shown in albums like ''Mist'' and others he has recorded, starting from 2001, after a move to Seattle. In addition to his solo productions, Brennan appeared in collaboration with other well-known ambient composers such as Steve Roach and

Kevin Braheny Kevin Braheny Fortune (born Kevin Braheny, 1952) is an American musician. He composes and performs quiet ambient music, often more melodic than other music of this kind. Biography Kevin Braheny was on the early design team of Serge Modular, a ...

on ''

Western Spaces ''Western Spaces'' is a collaborative album by the American ambient musicians Steve Roach and Kevin Braheny. This album is the first of Steve Roach’s many musical tributes to the Southwestern Desert. On several tracks Kevin Braheny uses his ...

'' (1987) and Vidna Obmana on ''Amplexus: Collected Works from the 1995 Ltd Series'' (1997). However, all of Thom Brennan's main works are self-productions, and since the beginning of his career he has chosen the World Wide Web as the primary channel of distribution. Today he continues working as an independent artist, publishing his releases through his own label
Raingarden SoundWorks

Discography

* 1987 - ''Mountains'' (Cassette), TMB Music * 1987 - ''

'' (CD, LP, TP; with Steve Roach and

; track: ''In The Heat Of Venus''), Innovative Communication/Fortuna. * 1989 - ''Mohave I'' * 1993 - ''Mountains'' (CD, Album), Rubicon. * 1995 - ''The Path Not Taken'' (CD, Mini, Ltd), Amplexus. * 1996 - ''Beneath Clouds'' (CD), Arya. * 1996 - ''Amplexus: Collected Works from the 1995 Ltd Series'' (CD; with Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana), Projekt. * 2000 - ''Mist'' (Cdr), Space For Music. * 2001 - ''The Dragon's Dream'' (CD), TMB Music. * 2001 - ''Mist'' (Cdr), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2001 - ''Secret Faiths Of Salamanders'' (Cdr), Ampcast.com. * 2001 - ''Shimmer (CD)'', TMB Music. * 2001 - ''Shimmer'' (Cdr), Ampcast.com. * 2001 - ''Strange Paradise'' (Cdr), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2001 - ''Vibrant Water'' (Cdr), Ampcast.com. * 2001 - ''Vibrant Water'' (Cdr), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2002 - ''Satori'' (Cdr), Zero Music (USA). * 2002 - ''Collective Series Vol. 1 - Basic Space'' (CD; with other artists), Space For Music. * 2002 - ''Schwingungen Radio Auf CD # 85'' (CD; with other artists), Cue Records (Germany). * 2003 - ''Signals In Moonlight'' (Cdr), TMB Music. * 2003 - ''Signals In Moonlight'' (Cdr), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2004 - ''Beneath Clouds'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2004 - ''Mist'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2004 - ''Mist'' (CD), Space For Music. * 2004 - ''Mountains'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2004 - ''Satori'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2004 - ''Shimmer'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2004 - ''Signals In Moonlight'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2004 - ''Strange Paradise'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2004 - ''Vibrant Water'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2005 - ''Satori'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2005 - ''Silver'' (CD), Raingarden SoundWorks. * 2005 - ''Vista'' (MP3 CD), Soundclick.com. * 2005 - ''Vista II'' (MP3 CD), Soundclick.com. * 2005 - ''Special CD Sampler E-dition #10'' (CD; with other artists), E-dition Magazine. * 2006 - ''Chasing The Dawn: Ultima Thule Ambient Volume 01'' (CD; with Steve Roach, Robert Rich and other artists), Ultima Thule Ambient Media. * 2006 - ''Vista III (MP3 CD)'', Soundclick.com. * 2008 - ''Stories from the Forest'' (MP3 CD), Thom Brennan. * 2009 - ''Tones'' (MP3), Thom Brennan. * 2010 - ''Sound Channels'' (MP3), Thom Brennan.

References

External links

Thom Brennan official website

Thom Brennan, Raingarden SoundWorks media portal
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brennan, Thom 1957 births Living people American male composers 21st-century American composers American electronic musicians New-age musicians Ambient musicians 21st-century American male musicians

Works

Discography

See also

References

External links