John Wolf Brennan


John Wolf Brennan is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based in Weggis, Switzerland.
YT johnwolfbrennan

Career

Brennan was born in Dublin, Ireland. His family moved to Switzerland when he was seven years old. He began taking piano lessons at age eleven, played bass guitar in a rock band in 1970, then played keyboards in a jazz-rock band. He studied at the University of Fribourg, Swiss Jazz School in Bern, the conservatory in Lucerne, and the Academy of Church and School Music. His brother Peter Wolf, a singer, saxophonist, flautist, and oboist, founded the progressive rock band Flame Dream in 1977. During the same year Brennan founded the free jazz group Freemprovisations, which included Peter Schärli. Two years later he formed the band Impetus.
From 1980 to 1984, he played in Impetus and the Mohrenkopf Afro-jazz band from 1980 to 1982 in Triumbajo with Ushma Agnes Baumeler and Barni Palm. During the 1980s he also worked with Corin Curschellas, Christy Doran, and Urs Leimgruber. In 1988, he worked in New York City for six months, then founded the quartet Pago Libre the following year.
Early in the 1990s he worked with Lindsay Cooper, Daniele Patumi, and Tscho Theissing and established the SinFONietta ensemble in 1991. In 1993, he worked with American drummer Alex Cline in the quintet Shooting Stars & Traffic Lights. Russian hornist Arkady Shilkloper joined Pago Libre and recorded the albums Pago Libre, Stepping Out, PlatzDADA! and Fake Folk.
In 1997, he lived in London and worked with Julie Tippetts, Evan Parker, and Chris Cutler in HeXtet, which set to music poems by Seamus Heaney, Edgar Allan Poe, and Theo Dorgan. In 1999 he toured in Finland with Ivo Perelman and worked with Gianluigi Trovesi, Gianni Coscia, and Daniele Patumi in the quartet Euradici.
Brennan worked with clarinetist Gene Coleman for the Momentum albums and with Christy Doran and Patrice Heral in the group Triangulation, where he developed "comprovisation", a term he coined in 1989. He released the solo albums The Beauty of Fractals, Pictures in a Gallery, and The Speed of Dark. Following his album The Well-Prepared Clavier, he developed prepared piano techniques, creating non-electronic sounds such as "arcopiano", "pizzicatopiano", "tamburopiano", and "sordinopiano".
In 2010, he created the sound installation "Inner & Outer Spaces" with video artist Susanne Hofer for the Lucerne Art Museum, performing with Gerry Hemingway and Thomas K. J. Mejer. He was in the trio Melos Montis with Hanspeter Wigger and yodel singer Franziska Wigger and in the duo Twinkeys with Esther Flückiger. He formed the band Sonic Roots with Christy Doran, Andreas Gabriel, Marc Halbheer, Heiri Kaenzig, and Marcel Oetiker.
In 2012, he collaborated with overtone singer Christian Zehnder and Arkady Shilkloper. During the same year he recorded Pilgrims with guitarist Marco Jencarelli and percussionist Tony Majdalani. In 2018, he founded the trio SOOON with Majdalani and yodel singer Sonja Morgenegg.
Brennan has composed film music, chamber music, and the operas Güdelmäntig and Night.Shift. The first volume of his Sonic Roots series of books was premiered at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2010 and published by Pan-Verlag. The second and third were published in 2011, the fourth in 2013, the fifth in 2014.
The Percussion Art Ensemble Berne premiered his composition "Oscillating Orbits" in 2013 for marimba, vibraphone, timpani, and percussion featuring violinist Misa Stefanovic. In 2015, the Neues Orchester Basel commissioned "Traumpfade", a piece for orchestra and overtone soloist Christian Zehnder. For the 30-year anniversary of the Zurich James Joyce Foundation he wrote "Winds of May" for soprano and piano based on Joyce's Chamber Music IX. He wrote a hymn for his Swiss hometown, Weggis, called "s'Wäggiser Lied". For the Alpentöne Festival 2017, he composed "Got hard", an alpine jazz suite for wind orchestra, Pago Libre & Friends. In August 2018, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich performed his work Traumpfade with soloists Arkady Shilkloper and Christian Zehnder at the Festival Stubete am See.
In 2019, he wrote most of the choir arrangements for the program Inland by the Zurich female choir "die vogelfreien". He composed music for the play Fluctus and released the albums Nevergreens, Cinémagique 2.0, and Youchz.

Discography

Solo Piano

  • 1989: The Beauty of Fractals
  • 1991: Iritations
  • 1994: Text, Context, Co-Text & Co-Co-Text
  • 1998: The Well-Prepared Clavier with Marianne Schroeder
  • 2002: Flügel
  • 2006: Pictures in a Gallery
  • 2009: The Speed of Dark
  • 2012: Solopiano
  • 2017: Silly Blooze. In: Twenty Years of New Blues for Piano. Marcel Worms, Piano
  • 2019: Nevergreens
  • 2021: Nitty Gritty Ditties with Anna Murphy
  • 2024: ''Wish you were Hear''

Pago Libre

  • 1990: Extempora with Lars Lindvall, Steve Goodman & Daniele Patumi
  • 1993: Shooting Stars and Traffic Lights with John Voirol, Tscho Theissing, Daniele Patumi & Alex Cline
  • 1995: Moskau-Petuschki / Felix-Szenen with Lars Lindvall, Martin Mayes, Marion Namestnik, Tscho Theissing, Daniele Patumi, Oscar Bingisser & Liana Schwanja
  • 1996: Pago Libre. with Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing & Daniele Patumi
  • 1997: Pago Libre: Wake Up Call: Live In Italy with Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing & Daniele Patumi
  • 2001: Pago Libre: Cinémagique. with Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing & Daniele Patumi
  • 2003: Pago Libre: Phoenix: Live in Salzburg & Zurich with Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing & Daniele Patumi
  • 2005: Pago Libre: Stepping Out with Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing, Georg Breinschmid
  • 2008: Pago Libre Sextett: platzDADA! with Agnes Heginger, Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing, Georg Breinschmid & Patrice Héral
  • 2009: Pago Libre: Fake Folk with Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing, Georg Breinschmid & Patrice Héral
  • 2018: Pago Libre & Friends: got hard with Florian Mayer, Arkady Shilkloper, Tom Götze, Patrice Héral, Christy Doran, Christian Zehnder & dem Alpentöne Blasorchester, Leitung: Michel Truniger
  • 2019: Pago Libre: Cinémagique 2.0 with Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing, Daniele Patumi & Georg Breinschmid
  • 2020: Pago Libre Sextet: platzDADA!!. with Agnes Heginger, Arkady Shilkloper, Tscho Theissing, Georg Breinschmid & Patrice Héral
  • 2020: Pago Libre: Mountain Songlines with Florian Mayer, Arkady Shilkloper, Tom Götze & Sonja Morgenegg
  • 2021: Pago Libre & Sooon: FriendShip with Sonja Morgenegg, Tony Majdalani, Arkady Shilkloper, Florian Mayer & Rätus Flisch
  • 2022: Extempora with Lars Lindvall, Steve Goodman & Daniele Patumi
  • 2024: Pago Libre & Sooon: FriendShip - Riffs ahead! with Sonja Morgenegg, Tony Majdalani, Arkady Shilkloper, Florian Mayer & Rätus Flisch
  • 2025: Pago Libre: Wild Card. Songs from a Farm with Arkady Shilkloper, Florian Mayer & Rätus Flisch

Christy Doran & Triangulation

Pilgrims, SOOON

  • 2013: Pilgrims with Tony Majdalani & Marco Jencarelli
  • 2017: Pilgrims: Oriental Orbit with Tony Majdalani & Marco Jencarelli
  • 2019: SOOON: YouCHz Now with Sonja Morgenegg & Tony Majdalani
  • 2024: Pilgrims in Trance it with Tony Majdalani & Marco Jencarelli

Momentum

Urs Leimgruber

Daniele Patumi

  • 1993: TEN ZENtences with Daniele Patumi
  • 1997: Aurealis with Robert Dick & Daniele Patumi
  • 2002: Time Jumps – Space cracks with Daniele Patumi

Various

  • 1979: Opening Seed with Agnes Ushma Baumeler, Mark Zingg, Bianca Medici & Fausto Medici
  • 1980: Celtic Country Dances with Agnes Ushma Baumeler
  • 1981: Triumbajo with Agnes Ushma Baumeler & Barni Palm
  • 1983: Down to Earth with Marco Käppeli, Ushma Agnes Baumeler, Thomas Dürst & Jürg Burkhard
  • 1988: Entupadas with Corin Curschellas
  • 1993: Willisau live and more with Creative Works Orchestra
  • 1994: OrganIC VoICes with Gabriele Hasler, Peter Schärli & Christian Muthspiel
  • 1998: HeXtet: Through the Ear of a Raindrop with Julie Driscoll, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, Chris Cutler & Peter Whyman
  • 1999: Minute Age with Margrit Rieben & Reto Senn
  • 1999: Nisajo with Nicky Heinen & Alexander Alexandrov
  • 2000: Pipelines with Hans Kennel
  • 2000: Entropology – The Science of Sonic Poetry with Eddie Prévost & Simon Picard
  • 2002: Broken Dreams live with Alexandra Prusa, Hans Kennel & Marc Unternährer
  • 2003: klanggang
  • 2003: Glockenspiel
  • 2003: Zero Heroes with Peggy Lee & Dylan van der Schyff
  • 2004: Pipelines – Live at Lucerne Festival with Hans Kennel & Marc Unternährer
  • 2004: I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S. with Urs Blöchlinger, Peter Schärli, Lindsay Cooper, Steve Argüelles, Christy Doran, Urs Leimgruber, Marco Käppeli e.a.
  • 2004: Sculpted Sound with Magda Vogel, Charlotte Hug, Shirley Anne Hofmann, Eugen Gomringer & Christian Wolfarth
  • 2007: Broken Dreams: Hommage an Sophie Taeuber-Arp with Alexandra Prusa & Peter Gossweiler
  • 2007: Mein liebstes Krokodil: after Anton Chekhov The Lady with the little Dog and letters to and from Olga Knipper with Thomas Hürlimann & Arkady Shilkloper
  • 2008: Jodel Vol. 1 with Nadja Räss & Franziska Wigger
  • 2009: Klick, klick, ihr Sätzlinge with Eveline Hasler
  • 2012: POYA with Daniel Mezger
  • 2012: Tarkus & Other Love Stories Piano-Duo TwinKeys
  • 2014: Dehei nöd dehei with Christian Zehnder & Arkady Shilkloper
  • 2016: MODE with Gérard Widmer, Fujara & Willi Grimm, Didjeridu
  • 2016: Echo. Von der Suche nach Widerhall. Feature by Bettina Mittelstrass, with Christian Zehnder & John Wolf Brennan. Featureprice 2016
  • 2023: Klanglabor feat. John Wolf Brennan with Arno Oehri, Denise Kronabitter & Marco Sele
  • 2024: Percussion Art Ensemble Bern & Misa Stefanovic: Grenzgänger Works by Fred Frith, John Wolf Brennan & Siegfried Kutterer
  • 2025: Night in Gale with Arkady Shilkloper, Christian Zehnder & Marcello Wick

Groupe Lacroix