Brett William Naucke (b. 1985) is an American experimental composer and visual artist from Chicago, IL currently based in Asheville, NC.
Naucke's sonic output has been primarily focused on marrying an ever-evolving practice of synthesis with conceptual narratives. His most recent recordings have been released by a wide variety of acclaimed labels such as American Dreams, Spectrum Spools, Umor Rex, L.I.E.S, and Hausu Mountain in addition to many others since 2010. Beyond live performance, Naucke has provided the original scores for several films, sound design for interactive gaming, and presented many works for multi-channel audio and video installations.
With synthesis, Naucke has worked extensively with a variety of synthesizer and software producers on product development, testing, and visual content in addition to lecturing and teaching on modular synthesis through both The Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. He has also taught and held a residency at ACRE (Artist Cooperative Residency Exhibitions) Harold Arts Center, Electrostudio Stockholm (EMS).
Additionally, Naucke ran the Catholic Tapes record label from 2007-to 2015, releasing just shy of 100 documents of American underground electronic music focussed heavily on Chicago-based artists and a visual vehicle for Naucke's photographs and visual art. He was a member of the legendary Avant-art collective ONO from 2012-2017, and has been a collaborator both live and in recording for acclaimed acts such as Ryley Walker, Bitchin Bajas, Tortoise, Pulse Emitter, Cloud Nothings, TALSounds, Bill MacKay, Matchesse.
Naucke’s most recent work; Mirror Ensemble can be found here
" Music may not actually have height, width or depth, but Brett Naucke's certainly feels three-dimensional. Using synthesizers, field recordings and a variety of other sources, the Chicago-based artist crafts expansive pieces that are like physical spaces you can enter and explore." -Marc Masters, NPR