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About Brian:
Brian Wroten is a passionate, eclectic American composer/bassist emerging from the lower Chesapeake Bay of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Fans and music critics describe his sound as “stirring, incomparable and … often featuring unusual instrumentations and virtuostic playing.”
Brian stands apart from other composers in that he has found a way to fuse classical music seamlessly with popular music. He has effectively bended pre-existing mindsets about genre definitions into a new format now being called “progressive post-minimalism” and “epic chamber pop”.
His acclaimed debut album “Tasman” was released on New Year’s Day 2014 and was quickly heralded as “… a contemporary masterpiece by a writer not afraid to push the limits of conventional composition.” (Stephanie Eslake, CutCommon)
In a sea of mediocre modern classical music, Brian truly stands out as a diamond in the rough. Brian’s career choices as a musician, taking the “road less travelled” in music started when he was disenfranchised by being commonly viewed as a support instrument for guitarists in a band. Brian was never satisfied with this distinction and strived to break boundaries and set new standards for what is possible for the bass guitar. He has made a pathway on his own for his instrument’s role in classical music that had not been pioneered at all before him.
About Tasman:
“Tasman” is an album of stirring eclectic and incomparable compositions primarily driven by the chunky picking and chordal approach of Brian’s acoustic bass guitar technique underneath classical instrumentations superimposed over rock, jazz, and doom-metal song forms. This is as strong and diversified a debut-album you will hear from any emerging artist.
Interestingly and unfortunately an Australian immigration situation arose post-completion of Brian’s MA in Music Composition from the University of Tasmania due to visa ineligibility. The album for that reason now serves as a "requiem" for an aborted Tasmanian life experience, which has only in time enhanced the mystery, and magic surrounding this LP.
“Tasman” was written & recorded over a 2-year period (2011-2013) and features ensembles entirely composed of student musicians and sound engineers who were in attendance at the Conservatory at that time. “Tasman” does not however sound like a “student project” by any means but rather a convincing testimony of what one tenacious artist can accomplish if the will to express themselves overrides any superficial conditions of life.
“Tasman is a contemporary masterpiece by a writer not afraid to push the limits of conventional composition.” – Stephanie Eslake, CutCommon
