Brian Bridges is a composer, researcher and electronic musician from Dublin, currently based in Derry, where he has been lecturing at Ulster University since 2008. One of his main creative interests is microtonality and alternate tuning systems and he has explored this field through diverse media and forces including music for acoustic ensembles, electric guitars, electroacoustic compositions and sound installations, and spatial music.
His pieces have been programmed at festivals in Europe, the Americas and China. He is spending spring 2015 composing in Beijing, having previously worked there with the TiMi Ensemble in 2010 and 2012. Other recent work includes pieces for Derry~Londonderry City of Culture 2013, including installations in Austins Department Store (the world’s oldest department store in continuous operation) and a radiophonic piece, 'Ripples of Inertia Bells', for London–based Resonance FM as part of their residency at Void Gallery. He has also created sound installations for the Contemporary Music Centre, including Culture Night events in 2009 ('Spectral Spaces') and 2011 ('Collapsing Old Buildings'). In addition, he has been a member of the Dublin–based Spatial Music Collective since 2006.
He completed an MPhil degree in Music and Media Technologies at Trinity College Dublin in 2003, where he studied composition with Donnacha Dennehy, Roger Doyle and Jürgen Simpson and completed a thesis on microtonality/alternate tuning and amplification in the music of La Monte Young, Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca. Following this, he undertook private studies with Glenn Branca and Tony Conrad in New York, supported by grants from the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon. His PhD, on the topic microtonal music, was awarded by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in 2013.
I’m fascinated by how music can unexpectedly shift from opaque to transparent as small changes are made. That’s one of the reasons I’m interested in microtonality and electroacoustic sound.