Michael Brook

Random and bite-sized facts on all things from the mythical infinate guitar man that is Michael Brook. Totally random but totally fascinating if you're into it. Do you know Michael Brook now?

Michael Brook's Infinite Guitar worked by turning electronic feedback into a way of sustaining a guitar string. A pickup detected the vibration of the string, while Brook's circuitry fed the signal back into the instrument, causing the string to vibrate again instead of naturally dying away.

The effect was similar in principle to the feedback produced by a guitar played close to a loud amplifier, but Brook made the process controllable and built it into the instrument. This meant he could sustain notes for extremely long periods without having to hold an EBow in his picking hand.

Brook's invention wasn't simply about making notes last longer. The sustained sound allowed him to bend and ornament notes continuously, something he connected to his interest in Indian music and the movement between notes. The Infinite Guitar therefore became part of his approach to melody as well as a technical effect.

The Infinite Guitar was designed partly because Michael Brook wanted to explore the way Indian musicians move between notes. He was interested in melody as a journey from one note to another rather than simply a sequence of separate notes, and the sustained guitar allowed him to approach the instrument in a more vocal, ornamented way.

Michael Brook's Infinite Guitar became closely associated with The Edge. Brook built the instrument that The Edge used on U2's “With or Without You”, and later recalled being pleasantly surprised that The Edge found a different way of playing it from his own approach.

Brook's connection with Jon Hassell was important to the development of his own music. He joined Hassell's band and worked on Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics and Dream Theory in Malaya. Brook later acknowledged that Hassell's approach to melody influenced parts of his first solo album, Hybrid.

Hybrid, released in 1985, began as a home-recording project in Toronto before Michael Brook took the material to Daniel Lanois's studio in Hamilton. The album combined Brook's guitar treatments with drones and other electronically manipulated sounds.

Michael Brook said that Brian Eno helped him understand structural and arrangement possibilities on Cobalt Blue that he simply hadn't perceived himself. Brook had generated the basic ideas alone, but Eno helped him recognise ways of shaping the material into a larger composition.

Michael Brook was involved in Rain Tree Crow, the 1991 album made by the four members of Japan. His contributions included the Infinite Guitar on “Blackcrow Hits Shoe Shine City”, as well as percussion, bass conga and sound treatments elsewhere on the album.

Michael Brook's music developed partly from a fascination with drones. He said one reason he liked drones was that he had a poor sense of harmony: with a drone, he always knew where he was. His interest in Indian music also drew him to the sustained tonal centre and the emphasis on the journey between notes.

Michael Brook still uses the very first version of the Infinite Guitar he ever made. Decades after inventing it, he said he hadn't made any major advances to the design because the original already did what he needed musically.

Only three Infinite Guitars were known to have been made: Michael Brook had one, The Edge had one and Daniel Lanois had one. Brook never turned the invention into a mass-produced commercial instrument.

Michael Brook didn't just use conventional guitar effects on Hybrid. He built an instrument called the “Buzz Bass”, which he described as a cross between a bass guitar and a tambura. The idea came from the sustained drone of the Indian tambura.

Brook's interest in Indian music wasn't simply about its sound. He became fascinated by the way melodies move between notes, and said this was one reason the Infinite Guitar appealed to him: it allowed him to sustain a note while bending and ornamenting it rather than treating each note as a separate event.

Michael Brook helped Brian Eno set up his Wilderness Studio in England around 1986. Brook later recalled staying there, although he stressed that he didn't remember actually working on Jon Hassell's recordings at the studio.

Brook's connection with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan went far beyond simply playing guitar. He produced Mustt Mustt and played Infinite Guitar, guitar, bass, percussion and synthesizer on the album. Several of the compositions were also credited to Brook.

Rain Tree Crow was built largely from improvisation. There were no pre-rehearsals: the musicians improvised in the studio, and much of the finished album retained elements of those original performances. Michael Brook was one of the outside musicians who became part of that process.

Michael Brook invented the Infinite Guitar. The Edge used one on the opening of U2's “With or Without You”, creating that extraordinary sustained guitar sound. But here's the connection I love: A few years later, Brook used the same invention on *Rain Tree Crow*, the album made by the four members of Japan. One strange invention links two very different records. I post things like this most days. Follow if you're into it.