JOSEPH BRANCIFORTE
Joseph Branciforte (b. 1985) is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, and Grammy award-winning recording engineer based out of New York.
Branciforte's wide-ranging musical activity spans acoustic, electronic, and algorithmic composition, performance and improvisation on a variety of acoustic and electronic instruments, and an expansive discography as recording, mixing, and mastering engineer. At the bottom of each of these seemingly discrete threads lies a relentless fascination with sound as a profound emotional medium — organized through musical form, articulated by a careful selection of sound sources, and framed through the act of recording.
As musician & producer, Branciforte has collaborated with artists including Theo Bleckmann, Ben Monder, Taylor Deupree, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kenneth Kirschner, Greg Davis, Jozef Dumoulin, and JACK Quartet. As recording engineer, he has lent his talents to over 300 albums, working with some of the most respected names in jazz and creative music: Chick Corea, Tim Berne, Bill Frisell, Vijay Iyer, Nels Cline, Wadada Leo Smith, Craig Taborn, Marc Ribot, Steve Lehman, and The Westerlies.
In 2019, Branciforte founded the greyfade record label in order to present album-length statements from artists exploring algorithmic composition, electronic minimalism, proceduralism, and alternate tuning systems. The label’s inaugural release was LP1, a collaboration between vocalist & sound artist Theo Bleckmann and Branciforte on modular synthesizer, Fender Rhodes, and live electronic processing. The album was included on All Music Guide's Best Electronic Music of 2019.
Branciforte has also developed a process of realtime algorithmic composition for acoustic instruments using software of his own design. From The Machine, his ongoing collaboration with composer Kenneth Kirschner, explores generative and procedural methods of composing for acoustic instruments. The project's first volume was released on greyfade in 2021.
In 2022, he received Grammy and Latin Grammy awards as a recording engineer. Albums he has produced, engineered, and mixed have been included in the NPR Jazz Critics’ Poll Top 10 and Downbeat Magazine's Albums of the Year and can be heard on ECM, Sony, Dualtone, Pi Recordings, Sunnyside, Ropeadope, Cantaloupe, New Amsterdam, and Naxos.
He works primarily out of greyfade studio, his private recording, mixing, and mastering space just north of New York City.
