Bremnar is the nom de plume of Scottish drone and ambient artist Alison Greenwood. Tucked away in rural Scotland, Bremnar creates intoxicating and absorbing soundscapes that pull the listener into their comfortable, sometimes dark, always beautiful, world. We caught up with the musician to find out more about their process.
Hi Bremnar, how are you today? What is the history of the name Bremnar?
Hi Becky, yeah I’m doing fine. Bremnar is the name of the street on which I was born.
Could you give us a little bit of your background and how you arrived at making music?
I’ve always had a fascination with atmospheric electronica and soundtrack music, but I was never skilled enough at any one musical instrument to create “traditional” compositions, so I was never anything more than a bedroom musician, until a couple of years when I tried my hand at making simple minimalistic dronescapes, and self-releasing them on Bandcamp. To my utter surprise, some people out there seemed to really dig them…
Your music is very beautiful yet very minimal. Do you ever find it hard to have restraint when producing this type of music?
Thank you. Sometimes I get carried away with dense over-layering of sounds, which results in sonic murkiness… but for the most part I’m pretty good at letting less be more, and making the overlapping and interweaving of simple melodies and tones be the central point of immersion.
There’s an almost spiritual quality to your work, from the meditative tones, but also in the unfolding serenity. Would you consider yourself a spiritual person at all? Or do other aspects of your personality come through in your work?
That’s interesting. I wouldn’t say I’m a spiritual person necessarily, but I do believe there’s spiritual aspects to our existence. A lot of what drives me to create this type of music in the first place is the desire for solitude and peace within my day, along with the need to lose myself within my own imagined dreamscapes. I consider myself a dreamer, and a very contemplative person. I think that definitely comes through in my work…
How does your environment reflect your music? You’re from the UK, can I ask whereabouts roughly? And what is the music scene like there?
I live in a quiet rural part of Scotland where there’s no music scene at all. I leave it for the listeners to judge whether my music is a reflection of my environment. I think it is, at least partially. There’s a lot of barren landscapes and emptiness where I live, and an undeniable melancholy in the air. That seems to come through in my music…
What have been the most inspiring factors in your life, musical or otherwise?
Discovering the beauty of ambient/drone music in general has had a huge impact on my life. It’s great music for wordlessly expressing emotions, and getting lost in your own thoughts. There’s so much freedom in this genre of music, and (unlike so many other genres) I love how it’s not centered around the artist’s looks, personality, gender or race. Outside of music, I find books and movies to be just as creatively inspiring. Nature and being outside in nature is also hugely important to me. Animals, weather, landscapes… it never ceases to astound me, and inspire me.
Can I ask a bit about your technical process for producing the track “Dreams in Parallel”?
To be honest, my memory is pretty hazy as to what went into creating ‘Dreams In Parallel’ at this point. It definitely began with one simple chord, with a variation of notes in there, over which I added a slow phaser effect, to give it that swirling sound. On top of that sonic foundation I just built layer upon layer of subtle sound, which eventually resulted in another longform immersive dronescape that I was satisfied with.
I’ve asked you a lot of questions, care to ask me one?
I really appreciate your questions, Becky. What’s your favourite thing to do in life?
Walking with headphones in while staring up at the moon. Thank you so much for your time!
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