Candlesnuffer aka David Brown has been involved in the Melbourne avant-garde, art rock/punk rock scene since the mid-seventies with such groups as False Start, Signals and Dumb and the Ugly. The first two of these groups began from associations made around the time he was completing a diploma of fine arts in the mid-1970s.
Subsequent projects include punk jazz band bucketrider, lazy an improvising duo with percussionist Sean Baxter, improv/sound art group Western Grey with Baxter and Philip Samartzis, psychedelic electronic group Terminal Hz with KK Null from Japan, prepared improvisational group Pateras/Baxter/Brown, electric free jazz group Embers, the duo culture of un with Sydney pianist Chris Abrahams, the prepared instrument duo Hakea with saxophonist Rosalind Hall, the duo Helium Clench with Melbourne guitarist and microtonal instrument builder Tim Catlin as well as more occasional groups The Greg Kingston Big Band and The Crowded Foxhole, the latter with son Louis Peake.
The focus of the solo project candlesnuffer has increasingly centred on the development of composing techniques which meld opposing streams like conventional electro-acoustic methods with noise and rock and also the development of a vocabulary of tiny acoustic sounds enlarged outside their normal context for performance and composition.
In all these projects Brown has continued to develop a vocabulary that runs the gamut from rock bassist through experimental guitarist to sound artist. In addition, his activities as a solo improviser and composer have been consolidated by a return to education, with the aim to research the relationship between digital recording technology and improvisatory techniques, concluding in an M.A. completed at RMIT in 2001. Following this Brown undertook a PhD research project at RMIT University investigating the use and benefits of electroacoustique compositions and field recordings within a hospital Emergency Department. This doctorate was completed in late 2012 and a book providing an overview of the project was subsequently published in 2013.
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Whistlebiter
The Duo project of David Brown with New Zealand prepared pianist Hermione Johnson
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Jeff Henderson
NZ saxophonist and occasional guest with Bucketrider & Pateras/Baxter/Brown
Entry by donation
