“Extensively derivative, often anachronistic sometimes puerile” (The Wire)

Active between 2008-2014, The London-based Composer’s Collective Brainer charted an offbeat form of mixed media abstract performance that was equally concerned with sound, gesture, form and meaning.

The three of us long shared an interest in abstraction and the absurd along with an unhealthy preoccupation with permutation, repetition, and repetitive permutation.

The pieces served to question audience expectations, playfully and obsessively weaving improbable material into musical compositions. The results were intricately worked-out performances lying somewhere between music, dance and theatre that aimed to be simultaneously captivating, exasperating, and funny.

Brainer performed and were commissioned in the UK and Europe, and for three years were Composers-in-Residence at Borealis Festival, Bergen

Vimeo archive here