Welcome to Breakdown, an unofficial resource and discussion list about the innovative guitarist/producer Michael Brook. This site is infrequently updated, but contains a great deal of background info which will remain online. For up-to-date news and information, visit Michael Brook's official site and MySpace page.

Babbling Brook a compendium of articles reviews and interviews

Michael Brook Interview
from Air-Edel
[archived here without permission]

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Michael Brook has established his presence in contemporary music by means both numerous and varied. As a solo performer, he has toured the world performing compositions which are sleek, elegant, disturbing and powerful. His technical aptitude yields inventions on the order of the Infinite Guitar, which has become Michael's musical signature. Michael has collaborated with such artists as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Brian Eno, and contributed his signature woodwind timbre to Peter Gabriel's score to Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.

The complexion of his own music, born of love for Middle Eastern and Indian melodies, has unique and undeniable pictoral qualities. These qualities have been recognized by the directors whose films Michael has scored.

In 1986, Michael Brook collaborated with The Edge, guitarist for U2, on the soundtrack to the film, Captive. The film's score and its accompanying soundtrack album (Virgin Records) introduced the voice of Sinéad O'Connor to the world. Later, in 1994, Michael composed, and mixed to multi-channel surround sound, the score for the IMAX documentary, Fires of Kuwait. Nothing less than a vision of hell on earth, the film provided a stark canvas for which the Arabic inflections of Michael's Infinite Guitar were perfectly suited.

Tracks licensed from his Cobalt Blue album were mixed with cues specially written and performed by Michael for the soundtrack of Michael Mann's 1996 drama, Heat. The following year saw the release of Albino Alligator, featuring Michael Brook's score for the much-anticipated directing debut of renowned actor Kevin Spacey. The film's soundtrack (4AD Records) veers from swampy, blues-rock to insistent ostinatos which bring to mind the dynamic stasis of Phillip Glass' best work. Included on the album is a duet (Kimmy Scott and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe) which Brook co-produced with Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Michael's latest film, Affliction, a hit at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, features Brook compositions performed by the composer, the Turtle Island String Quartet and a cast of Bay Area musicians.