David Bremner

CD’S / PUBLICATIONS

Oct 2016: work featured on a CD of music performed by Elizabeth Hilliard, produced by Christopher Fox, released in October 2016 on Metier/Divine Art Records label

Nov 2014: released a CD of music for uilleann pipes and organ with piper Mark Redmond (funded by Arts Council Deis Recording Award) entitled l’air du temps/the spirit of the times

Apr 2013: Loop Walks, a work of scored poetry (produced in collaboration with poet Billy Mills) published in 2013 by hardPressed Poetry, with accompanying CD of performance of the work by ensembÉal, conductor: Orla Flanagan

RADIO / NEWSPAPER / JOURNAL / CONFERENCE COVERAGE

April 2019: “In contrast David Bremner’s Themework was an example of a piece that managed to stay in the one place and yet remain interesting. The piece was a continuation of the composer’s ‘application of fractal, generative techniques to melodic contour’…For much of the piece, the cello kept circling around an eerily expressive melody confined within a limited pitch range in the middle register … the composer controlled live electronics that added additional layers of complexity. The piece was genuinely weird and never lost interest as there was so much happening in what seemed like a very constricted space.”

review of Themework, Adrian Smith, Journal of Music, April 2019

March 2019: “This piece was the most genuinely experimental on the programme.”

review of Permanent Ritornello, Adrian Smith, Journal of Smith, March 2019

August 2017: “there is rather a merging of the logical and irrational on a large scale, magically sustained and often hypnotically involving…The work is part dramatic scena, and part dreamlike evocation: it is a triumph for both composer and performer.”

review of logic ballad #2, Martin O’Leary, AIC New Music Journal, August 2017

April 2017: excerpts from l’air du temps/the spirit of the times broadcast on Lyric FM, BBC Radio 3, and the European Broadcasting Network

Nov 2016: Work from CD ‘Sea to the West’ broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM’s Nova programme

August 2016: “Bremner exploited what you might call the in-between sounds that the mechanics of the organ can be made to produce, and the effect of his new work was like that of a sound-machine that has a Jean Tinguely-like deficiency in its workings.”

Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, 31st August 2016

April 2015: An in-depth interview with David was featured on John Schaefer’s WNYC/NYPR New Sounds programme

“The tunes here are predominantly airs mixed with Baroque flavours and the interplay between organ and pipes on The Lament For Staker Wallace is suitably refined. This is music to reflect on and digest as much as to appreciate for its strict formality and linear melodicism. Not your average traditional release, but one whose slow burning power creates its own idealistic space.”

review of l’air du temps…, John O’Regan, The Living Tradition, February 2015

“There is a clarity of intention throughout and an insightful sensitivity on the part of both players to each other and their respective repertoire and background. At times the two instruments are boldly contrasted in an unapologetic and indeed mischievous way (Bremner’s chordal accompaniment through the slow air of Eanach Dhúin, Couperin’s Kyrie en Taille) – but more often blend with great sensitivity and subtlety by both players (Amhrán na Leabhar). As the album progresses the territories are blurred further and the interaction becomes more brave.”

review of l’air du temps…, Donal MacErlaine, AIC New Music Journal, January 2015

March 2015: featured as part of the Composers’ Commentaries project by the AIC New Music Journal, a live commentary, in the format of an interview between myself and Dr Peter Moran on the performance of my work Gap Static by the RTÉ NSO conducted by Gavin Maloney

Nov 2014: l’air du temps / the spirit of the times gained much exposure on radio (RTÉ Radio 1, Lyric FM) and favourable reviews (The Living Tradition, AIC New Music Journal). A track was included on the CMC’s new music::new ireland 2 compilation

June 2014: presented the work logic ballad #2: the guarded tourist makes the guide the test at Music and / as Process conference in Canterbury, UK

Jan 2012: “…David Bremner’s We Hesitate, a fittingly abstract monody for the surrealist words of John Ashbery. In terms of composition and execution, this two-minute item felt the most technically assured of the evening.”

Andrew Johnstone, Irish Times, January 25 2012