Brett Naucke

Experimental musician Brett Naucke shapes abstract soundscapes from modular synthesizers, drawing inspiration from lucid dreaming. His work spans minimal drones and dense, chaotic compositions that occasionally shift into pulsating rhythms. Long embedded in Chicago’s underground music community, he has toured alongside post-rock pioneers Tortoise and performed with the cult experimental rock collective ONO. Between 2007 and 2015 he operated the Catholic Tapes imprint while issuing recordings on Spectrum Spools, Hausu Mountain, and Umor Rex.

Naucke relocated to Chicago in the 2000s to complete his studies. In 2007 he established Catholic Tapes, releasing several cassettes under the Face Worker moniker along with joint projects involving Ben Billington (Quicksails, Tiger Hatchery), Michael Pollard (Arbor Records), and Wyatt Howland (Skin Graft). Beginning in 2010 he began issuing material under his own name, first on cassettes for Arbor and Field Studies. His sparse, haunting debut LP, The Visitor, appeared on Nihilist in 2013. Early the following year the 7" EP Transparency came out via Catholic Tapes/Notes and Bolts, succeeded later in 2014 by the full-length Seed on John Elliott’s Editions Mego-affiliated Spectrum Spools imprint; every piece on the album was generated from the same synth patch, yet each sounds distinct.

Mexican label Umor Rex put out Naucke’s cassette Executable Dreamtime in 2016. The next year Hausu Mountain released the split tape Mugen, Vol. 9 with Pulse Emitter as well as his solo cassette Multiple Hallucinations. He returned to Spectrum Spools in 2018 for The Mansion, which included guest contributions from Natalie Chami (TALsounds, Good Willsmith) and Whitney Johnson (Matchess). Make Noise Records issued his EP Electronic Hypnosis Program in 2019. EMS Hallucinations, captured on Buchla 200 and Serge Modular synthesizers during a residency at Stockholm’s Elektronmusikstudion, surfaced on American Dreams Records in 2020.