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Chris Perren is an Australian composer and video artist. With creative outputs ranging from live electronics to chamber music, audiovisual artworks to match-rock, his interests lie in the spaces between genre, the collision points of sound and vision, and the complexity that can emerge from simple rules and patterns.

Chris is the founder and principle composer of the indie-chamber group, Nonsemble, math-rock group, Mr. Maps, and electronic outfit Software of Seagulls. With composer Madeleine Cocolas he is part of the textural electronica duo Magic City Counterpoint. He has composed music for Ensemble Offspring, UQ Big Band, Queensland Camerata, Rubiks Ensemble, and various soloists and production companies, and his work has been performed at Bang on a Can Festival (US), Extended Play Festival (Sydney), GoMA (Brisbane), and MONA (Hobart), Argo, Dots+Loops, Sonic State Festival, GoMA, and FlowState (Brisbane)

Chris is known for his experimental audiovisual pieces which explore phasing and polyrhythm using layers of synchronised sound and vision. These works conceive visual elements as part of the instrumentation, with sound and vision composed together as an integrated work. Chris' audiovisual work has been presented at International Computer Music Conference, MATA Festival (New York), Yper Museum (Belgium), and have earned him commissions from TEDxBrisbane, Dots+Loops, and Ensemble Offspring, an Australia Council New Work grant, and two MTAQ composer awards.

Chris's recorded output spans contemporary chamber music, instrumental rock, avant-pop, and experimental electronica, and has been released on Feral Media, New Weird Australia (Sydney), Sugarrush records, lofly records (Brisbane), Friend of Mine records (Tokyo), and Bigo & Twigetti (London), and received airplay on WNYC's New Sounds, Triple J, 4ZZZ, FBi Radio, ABC Classic FM. He has composed theatre scores for over 20 productions in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, and Hong Kong, in collaboration with high-profile directors such as Sean Mee, Wesley Enoch, Michael Futcher, Shane Jones and Michael Gow, including sound design for Shake&Stir's A Christmas Carol and Dead Puppets' The Last Tree in the City. He has composed, arranged, and produced music for media and advertising, including for high profile clients such as Queensland Ballet, Blue Care, and SEQ Water.

In the 2000's, after graduating from his B.Mus in applied composition at QUT, Chris spent an 18-month stint working, performing, and studying Japanese in Tokyo. Returning to Brisbane, he became part of the lofly collective, running Brisbane's legendary underground music venue "Hangar" and its associated record label. He was the founding member and guitarist of the math-rock band Mr. Maps, which gained a dedicated following between 2008 and 2015. Chris undertook his PhD at UQ between 2010 and 2014, under the supervision of Robert Davidson, where he explored the relationship between composition and media, leading to the emergence of both Nonsemble and Software of Seagulls. Chris has been an active member and organiser within Brisbane's indie-classical scene, centred around organisations such as Dots+Loops, Argo, and ensembles such as Perren's own Nonsemble.

Chris lectures in Music Technology at The University of Queensland School of Music. He is a specialist educator in the fields of music composition and arrangement, music technology, Ableton Live, and Logic Pro. At UQ, Chris played a key role in the design and roll out of the School of Music's newly renovated state-of-the-art recording studio and music technology teaching facilities in 2018, directed the School's iPad Ensemble and Electroacoustic Ensemble between, and is project lead for the School of Music's newly minted record label, Corella Recordings. Chris also often delivers composition workshops and composer-in-residence programs for Secondary Schools and other institutions.

Chris lives on unceded Jagera land in Brisbane's south with his wife and two children, rides a bicycle, and makes an acceptable flat white.

Chris Perren — current to February 2022