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Brett Sroka

"An Ellington fiend who likes to get his computerized space-dub on, the trombonist has lots of sound sculpture in him. His rather dramatic art music is both texturally rich and compositionally engaging." - The Village Voice

About Me

Brett Sroka is a composer, musician and sound artist for film, dance, installation and has released five records with his electro-acoustic jazz trio Ergo, and melodronoise duo Cherubim.

His first record, Hearsay (from Fresh Sound - New Talent Records) featured then newcomers Jason Moran, Avishai Cohen and Eric Harland, but being a trombonist in jazz engendered an outsider's perspective on the idiom, inspiring Sroka to begin exploring electronic music as well. His process has subsequently been an effort to reconcile these disparate fields: to develop an organic, improvisational approach to computer instruments, and to seek out dynamic, technological possibilities in music.

In early 2014, at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, Sroka premiered Sine Qua Non, a generative sound installation that grows out of a live improvisation. At the Arteles Center in Finland, he began an electro-acoustic, cross-millennial collaboration with Rauno Nieminen, a renowned luthier and performer of kantele, jouhikko, and other traditional instruments of Northern Europe. With As subtle as tomorrow, Ergo's forthcoming release on Cuneiform Records, a suite of acoustic pieces are transformed into electronic reflections of themselves.

Continuing to explore alternative contexts for audience and composer alike, Sroka will visit Alfred University's Institute for Electronic Arts in 2015 to develop Syllable from Sound, a participatory installation that integrates the voices of it's visitors into a modular composition.