Christopher John Cree Brown (born 25 July 1953) is a New Zealand sonic artist and composer of orchestral and electroacoustic works.
The latter incorporates the sounds of Antarctica: ice cracking and shattering, wind, seals and birds, and human activity.
[1][14] Cree Brown has stated that there are three reasons for composing music: political (how the world could change), for aesthetic pleasure and his own motivation of 'having something to say'.
[4] Several of Cree Brown's works have political and historical themes: Aramoana, Black and White, Pilgrimage to Gallipoli, No Ordinary Sun.
[16][17] Cree Brown's convictions against South African apartheid stimulated him to write Black and White (1987) for orchestra and tape about the 1981 Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand; despite being written and performed six years after the tour it proved controversial with some audience and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra players walking out of the performance.
[15][19] Cree Brown used his electroacoustic work No Ordinary Sun (2014) to express his anti–nuclear convictions and included poet Hone Tuwhare reading his own poetry; it was performed by the Karlheinz Company.