Brian O’Reilly
- MA Electronic Music & Sound Design, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
- BA of Fine Arts Sound & Video, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Brian enjoys working within the fields of electro-acoustic composition, sound installations, moving images and noise music. Also, he is a contrabassist who focuses on uncovering the inaudible textures and hidden acoustic microsounds of his instrument through the integration of electronic treatments and extended playing techniques.
He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a scholarship for sculpture, during which he focused on sonic art, kinetic sculpture and analogue video synthesis utilising the Sandin Image Processor. He was also engaged in independent studies in music improvisation, composition and synthesis.
He relocated to Paris to research the composition methods of the composer and architect Iannis Xenakis, where he worked extensively with Xenakis’ electronic music system utilising graphic sonic synthesis the UPIC. After a time of research at Les Ateliers UPIC, he received an appointment as the studio’s Musical Assistant, during which he also worked as music assistant for Luc Ferrari on his audio and video installation Cycle Des Souvenirs, and Eliane Radigue on her electroacoustic work L’Ile Re-sonante.
While pursuing his graduate studies in Electronic Music Composition at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Media Arts and Technology programme, he collaborated with Curtis Roads on the project Point Line Cloud which won an Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica in 2002.
As Operations Manager of Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco, he worked on many projects for the Asphodel record label & recording studio, and has received several international residencies and commissions including invitations to work as a guest artist at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Germany, the SH Festival in Shanghai and All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival curated by Autechre in the UK.
He has performed and worked on projects with Eliane Radigue, Luc Ferrari, Curtis Roads, Zbigniew Karkowski, Otomo Yoshihide, Matmos, Maryanne Amacher, Zeitkratzer, Dennis Wong, Christian Marclay, Toshimaru Nakamura, William Basinski, Yong Yandsen, Fe-Mail, Yasunao Tone, Darren Moore, George Chaua, Anla Courtis, Bani Haykal, Francisco López, The Observatory, Garth Knox, Steina and Woody Vasulka, among others.
In addition to his solo performances and works for moving images, he also plays modular analogue synthesiser in the duo Black Zenith, and contrabass and electronics with the noise-jazz group Game of Patience.