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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
(Translated from my original Italian text by Clare Matz)
Michael Brook, a New York-based Canadian-born guitarist, boasted a unique pedigree: a pupil of LaMonte Young, with whom he studied classical Indian music, a member of Martha and the Muffins back in the new wave years, a collaborator of renowned composers such as Jon Hassell, Jane Siberry, Peter Gabriel, Nana Vasconcelos, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, and a producer of world-music records.
His first solo record Hybrid (Editions EG, 1985), was one of the first "ambient" works of Brian Eno current, but already reflected influences from African and Indian music. Brooks brand sound is the hypnotic "infinite guitar" of his own invention: the instrument sounding like a sitar and then further filtered according to a technique similar to Hassle’s trumpet, is able to maintain a tone infinitely. It is the cushioned tone of the guitar that populates the percussive swamps of title-tracks, his are the thunderous ghosts that frighten the ambient sugar of Mimosa and Ocean Motion and the languid trance of Midday.
Brook, involved on all fronts, for several years didn't find enough time to record another record. When he did, Cobalt Blue (4AD, 1992) he approached the most hypnotic and atmospheric new age, but grafted with strong African rhythms . The album’s twelve wordless romances conjugate technology and primitivism according to the teachings of Steve Roach and Peter Gabriel’s latest work. The success of the "sound" of theis record is due to the collaboration of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois as well.
Live At The Aquarium (4AD, 1993) repeats some of those compositions, but this time Brook is alone and the difference can be heard.
(Original text by Piero Scaruffi)
Michael Brook wasted his talent in a number of collaborations, ranging from
the moody synth-pop pieces of Sleeps With The Fishes (4AD , 1987),
with Clan Of XYMOS' Pieter Nooten to
the soundtrack Captive (Virgin, 1987), with U2's The Edge,
from Dream (Real World, 1995), with Indian mandolin virtuoso
Upalappu Srinivas,
to Night Song (Real World, 1996), with sufi master Nusrat Fateh Ali.
The collaboration with Ali started way back on Ali's
Mustt Mustt (Real World, 1990) and continued on Ali's
Shahbaaz (Real World, 1990) and
The Last Prophet (Real World, 1994).
Night Song (Real World, 1996) is different because it
is truly Brook's, not Ali's, as was Dream. Brook subjects the music
to an intellectual treatment that takes away most of the spirit and the energy
of his partners.
When Ali died, the collaboration lent itself to commercial speculation:
Star Rise (Real World, 1997) is an album of remixes from
Mustt Mustt and Night Song, and, needless to say, of dance
remixes. The remixers (popular British musicians of Asian descent) introduce
elements of modern dance-music (dub, jungle and trip-hop) that distorts Ali's
music and insults Ali's memory.
The show must go on, as they say on Broadway.
Albino Alligator (4AD, 1997) is another soundtrack, and Brook writes
it according to the Ry Cooder canon of evocative, noir, postmodern guitar,
with nods to jazz, blues, country and surf. While completely different from
his usual techno/ethno tour de forces, this album ranks among his best
works of art.
Brook submits to the same process
Armenian duduk virtuoso Didjan Gasparyan, whom he had produced on
Moon Shines At Night (Real World, 1993). Their collaboration,
Black Rock (Real World, 1998), is, again, a Brook album that employs,
manipulates, warps, filters, abstracts the sound of Gasparyan's instrument.
The result, one more time, is trance and ambience with an ethnic flavor.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006) is the soundtrack to a documentary,
in an old-fashioned ambient style.
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