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Michael Brook

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Michael Brook is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, producer and film composer, born in 1952 in Toronto. He studied music and electronics at York University and worked as a technician at the Grant Avenue studio, which then belonged to the Lanois brothers. There he worked with Brian Eno, The Edge, Jon Hassell and Harold Budd. His first solo album, Hybrid, was released in 1985, with instrumental tracks featuring Indian and African elements. He lives in Los Angeles.

Music and breakthrough

He became known as the inventor of the Infinite Guitar, a guitar whose notes sustain almost endlessly. The Edge used this instrument on The Joshua Tree by U2 in 1987. Brook worked with Pieter Nooten of Clan of Xymox on Sleeps With the Fishes in 1987, contributed to Set by Youssou N'Dour and Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara, and made the album Mustt Mustt with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. For Night Song he received a Grammy nomination in 1996. He toured with Sylvian and Fripp, ending with a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1993, captured on Damage: Live.

Influence

As a film composer he wrote the music for, among others, Albino Alligator, Affliction, An Inconvenient Truth, Into the Wild, The Fighter, The Vow, Aloft and Brooklyn. For Into the Wild he received a Golden Globe nomination. His music combines electronics, world music and minimalism, and shows how a guitar without the usual attack can sound like an organ or a choir.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a track from Hybrid and notice the guitar: can you hear how the notes ring on and blend into one another, as if it were not an ordinary guitar string?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists