Jakob Bragg is an Australian composer currently based in Huddersfield (UK). Creating highly detailed works exploring ornamentation, distortion, notation materials, and instrumental parameters, Jakob has worked primarily with new music specialists. Close collaboration and the nurturing of artistic relationships have fostered a practice that seeks unconventional approaches to acoustic instruments, a highly personalised virtuosity, and a musical landscape that elicit descriptors such as weird, organic, brash, and imposing.

For Jakob, music and sound exist in a multitude of settings, from the political in “At least so far…” for voice + harnessing the use and misuse of language by politicians, to the exploratory in Subdue for solo clarinet; an intense exploration of timbre through instrumental technique. Working with acoustic sound has led to collaborations with a broad spectrum of instruments including the Uilleann Pipes and Recorders (Between giants), Double-bell trombone and Ondomo (Displaced bodies, weapons of action), and use of unusual items including bearing balls, saucepans, and vibrators.

In creating these sounds, Jakob has been fortunate to closely work with artists including ELISION (AU), Arditti Quartet (UK), International Contemporary Ensemble (US), Cikada (NO), Quatuor Tana (FR), Meitar Ensemble (IL), BRON (NL), panSonus (US), Australia’s Alex Raineri, Amber Evans, Phoebe Green, Callum G’Froerer, Rubiks Collective, Ossicle Duo, Kupka’s Piano, Syzygy Ensemble, Kurilpa String Quartet, The Song Company, Horsley & Williams Duo, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, and Queensland Philharmonia. His works have been featured across the world including China (Shanghai New Music Week), Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, France (Festival de Royaymont), Austria (Impuls), Germany (Darmstadt), Italy, Netherlands, United States, and throughout Australia (Metropolis New Music Week, Brisbane Music Festival). Jakob is currently undertaking his PhD at the University of Huddersfield, having previously studied at the University of Melbourne, and Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.

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