“[Breitweiser’s] initial meditation of a buzzing, transformer-like hum spikes into caterwauling waves, as if the listener is moving through a caged dreamscape of electrical transmission substations.” – Tone Madison
Edward Breitweiser is an Illinois-based artist, musician, electronic instrument builder, and writer who creates moments of sonic life. Drawing inspiration from the experimental and electronic music traditions, the uncanny potential of new (and obsolete) technology, and the landscape and pace of the American Midwest, Breitweiser combines particulars (including analog and digital synthesizers, custom software, handmade electronics, audio/visual signals, text, network and systems models, performative activities, community organizing) to produce systems that arise from the emergent, nonlinear interactions of all components at once. Spanning improvised and composed music, electronic instrument design, installations, and non-profit administration, Breitweiser’s projects embrace the contrasts between ecology and technology, solo and collective, clarity and density, DIY and infrastructure, stasis and surprise, simplicity and complexity.
In 2021, Breitweiser received a commission from NON:op Open Opera Works (Chicago) to create Six Words, a concert-length collaborative composition that engaged directly with Central Illinois residents to reflect on our collective experience of the COVID-19 pandemic through archival research, community dialogue, and collaborative music-making. Six Words will be released as a limited edition album from No Below Records in 2024.
His works have been presented at Festival MusicAlp (Courchevel, France); Network Music Festival (Birmingham, UK); the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago); Illinois State University Galleries (Normal, IL); MobileHCI (Stockholm); Salle Cortot (Paris); threewalls (Chicago); the Giorgio Cini Foundation (Venice); Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL); the Fuse Factory (Columbus); the McLean County Arts Center (Bloomington, IL); NON:op Open Opera Works (Chicago); Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago); and Sixty Inches From Center (online). Breitweiser is a member of art and music collectives including No Below Editions, Slow Dog, Big Bright Karl Fire, and Junokas + Breitweiser.
Breitweiser founded and serves as Director of pt.fwd (Facebook, Instagram), a contemporary music and sonic arts performance series featuring new work by local and regional artists in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Breitweiser studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA ‘12), l’École Normale de Musique de Paris, and Elmhurst College (BFA ‘09).
Breitweiser is an Instructional Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies at Illinois State University (Normal, IL).
Listen: Edward Breitweiser on Bandcamp
Interview: Community catharsis: Local composer uses our words to create music for processing the pandemic (WGLT.org, June 23, 2022)