Brent Fariss

Brent Fariss is a composer / performer living in Austin, Texas. He has collaborated in several modern music ensembles including ThomFariCraw, the Austin New Music Co-op, Gates Ensemble, Araxia Trio, and the Imbroglio String Quartet. He has also contributed to music for plays (Kirk Lynn's Lust Supper) and silent films (Jean Cocteau’s "Blood of a Poet", Harry Smith’s "Early Abstractions", & Ken Jacobs' "Mountaineer Spinning"), and released several CDs on the label, spectral house, that he founded along with Bill Thompson.

In 2004-2005, Fariss was curator of the Performance Series for the Austin Museum of Digital Art, bringing to town artists such as Phill Niblock, Richard Chartier, Olivia Block, and more. In the past two years, he has performed alongside Phill Niblock and Arnold Dreyblatt, collaborated with Jacob Green in the absurdist doom / post-no wave project, Frontal Spanking, and presented a sound installation, black on red / red on white, in response to a Hermann Nitsch's "THE ORGIES MYSTERIES THEATER".

Projects for 2008 include a new release on the Con-V label (bliss...), a split LP with Travis Weller (undectet), a recording with Arnold Dreyblatt & the Orchestra of Excited Strings (Kinship Collapse), a new work by S.I.R.S.I.T. (Cory Allen, Brent Fariss, Josh Russell, & Rick Reed), and the completion of a series of chamber works referencing Mexican minimalism. He is also the recipient of a 2008 Meet the Composer grant.

Fariss holds a Master's degree in Composition from Texas State University, where he also studied the contrabass. His goal in music is exploring the nature of sound (timbre), elevating it to the same level as melody, harmony, rhythm, and form.

Work List

Available Scores

Discography

Groups:

The Gates Ensemble
Austin New Music Co-Op
Frontal Spanking
S.I.R.S.I.T. (Sometimes in Texas it Rains Spacemen w/ Josh Russell, Cory Allen, Rick Reed)
Field (w/ Rick Reed, Alex Keller)
Knob Jobs (w/ Nick Hennies, Brian Sookram, Rick Reed)
The Waco Girls
Hauss of Wolff (w/ Rick Reed :: a cm von hausswolff tribute band)
The Deep Dream Decoders (w/ Rick Reed & Nathan Wood :: an opera of the subconscious)
Arnold Dreyblatt's Orchestra of Excited Strings (US version)

For more information: info@spectralhouse.com