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.

25 Essential Echoes CDs of 1998: #16
by John Diliberto
from Billboard
[archived here without permission]

Producer Michael Brook does for Armenian doudouk player Djivan Gasparyan what he did for Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on his 1995 breakthrough Night Song, only he does it differently. Brook surrounds the soul wrenching melodies Gasparyan gets from his double reed wind instrument, with earthy textures. Instead of electronic drum programs, there are acoustic drums. Instead of digital sequences there's Brook playing finger picking dobro-like guitar. There's still plenty of atmosphere and ambient shadows, especially when Brook unfolds the sinewy lines of his "infinite guitar," often tracing and expanding Gasparyan's melodies. [Songs like "Take My Heart" might be as close as Armenia will get to surf music.] Michael Brook has taken a spiritual music and taken it to another dimension.