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Audio Foundation is pleased to present Alan Brown, performing his new album ‘Encircle’Alan Brown is a musician with a long and revered history in the New Zealand jazz scene as a pianist & Hammond organist. He was the bandleader of the successful jazz-funk ensemble Blue Train in the 1990s and the organ-based Alan Brown Trio in the 2000s. He has been an enthusiastic music educator for many years and enjoys repairing vintage keyboards.
‘Encircle’ emerged through an exploratory process of improvisation inspired by generative audio systems. This allowed Alan’s compositional intentions to evolve via unpredictable and inspiring new pathways. When these semi-random elements aligned, they influenced and sometimes shaped the character of a composition in ways that led Alan to discover creative synchronicities he might not have found otherwise. In this sense, Alan employs the improvisational language of jazz within a “collaborative” technological environment.
“In late 2021, I acquired a handmade ‘Ondomo,’ an instrument that had interested me for a long time, which served as a key voice in my previous Rattle release Ondulation (2023). While the piano is known for its expressiveness and as a synthesiser controller, I have always been intrigued by alternative methods of interfacing with electronic musical instruments.
This use of the Ondomo on this recording serves a more subtle purpose. Woven discreetly into the fabric, it provides a quiet but vital presence that grounds the work without demanding attention.
Conceived in 2020, the closing track, Isolation, pays homage to William Basinski’s “The Disintegration Loops”. The sonic erosion of the work stems from digital breakdown, characterised by the gradual reduction of bits rather than traditional tape decay. Though born from a sense of separation, the piece gradually shifts to a calmer state in which the final moments evoke a sense of letting go and quietly accepting what remains.”
Alan Brown, July 2025
Listen to the album on Bandcamp: https://alan-brown.bandcamp.com/album/encircle
Saturday 22 November, 5PM @ Audio Foundation
Koha
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4 Poynton Terrace, Auckland, New Zealand
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