BRIAN CARPENTER

Brian Carpenter is an American singer-songwriter, composer, arranger, and producer. He founded Ghost Train Orchestra (Brooklyn NY) in Brooklyn in 2006 and has led the Boston-based band Beat Circus since 2004. With Beat Circus he has composed a trilogy of American Gothic albums which were widely acclaimed for their originality and vision. In 2015, he released The Far End of the World, the debut album with a new songwriting vehicle Brian Carpenter & The Confessions, to widespread critical acclaim. Ghost Train Orchestra's albums Hothouse Stomp and Hot Town made NPR's Top 10 Jazz Albums of the Year and the band has performed at festivals around the country.

Carpenter is the host and producer of Free Association, a radio show and podcast broadcast from WZBC 90.3 FM Boston College. Since 2001, Carpenter has produced several radio documentaries on Free Association, including an in-depth examination of sound design in horror and science fiction films.

He has been interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross and collaborated with a number of artists across mediums, including Kronos Quartet, Jarvis Cocker, Michael Gira, Rufus Wainwright, Marc Ribot, Brian Dewan, Carson Ellis, Danijel Zezelj, and Colin Stetson.

In 2019, Ghost Train Orchestra began a recording collaboration with Kronos Quartet and special guests reimagining the music of Louis Hardin, aka Moondog. In 2020, Carpenter was featured on the Kronos Quartet record Long Time Passing celebrating the work of Pete Seeger.

Live photograph by Neal Santos.
Landscape images by Amy Higgins.