Jun 23, 2019
I've known Stefan Brunner for some time - going back to some of the early Cycling '74 company meetings (I somehow remember him laying out a figure-8 bike path in an alleyway in SF...), but I've never really cornered him on his artistic work. This last February, we found ourselves in a restaurant, and I poked him to explain a little more about his artwork. He started revealing, and I was stunned - I knew he was an active artist, but didn't realize how deeply he was embedded into the thing. From Arto Lindsay to large orchestras to a duet with a mad turntablist, he was multi-disciplinary to the extreme.
And he is also a killer developer - both of deep C++ code as well as a variety of devices in Max for Live. All of this reveals itself in his work, which tends to simultaneously be abstract and deep, and which is always exploring the edges of the medium. His work with Pedro Lopes as The Hour Of The Wolf is a great example: just when you think it is totally non-representational, Stefan will peel off a beautiful guitar riff to center your mind. And that's just one manifestation of his work; whether it is coding, working on installations, working on compositions or performing, there's a grounding in the world along with the flights of impressionism.
You can check out more of Stefan's work at https://stb.klingt.org/, The Hour Of The Wolf at the link above, and his work (along with Timm Ringewaldt) as Audiokolor at http://audiokolor.org/. Enjoy!