Brett Carson is a composer, pianist, improviser, and occasional theater artist based in Oakland CA. His compositional work, which has been described as "fascinatingly intense" (Stephen Smoliar, SF Classical Voice), explores the juxtaposition of a gleefully chaotic plurality of musical approaches. This is combined with an abiding interest in science, mythology, and mysticism which manifests through surreal world-building and an exploration of the bizarre and uncanny. He counts among his diverse influences the musical minds of Sun Ra, Olivier Messiaen, and Captain Beefheart, and the literary work of André Breton, Clark Coolidge, Jorge Luis Borges, and J.R.R.Tolkien, not to mention countless films, anime, and video games.

Notable projects include his jazz group Quattuor Elephantis and a mytho-dramatic song cycle Mysterious Descent, the latter partially written in an invented language "Kôktimo". His works for theater include the one-act play Mary's Dilemma, or That Sinking Feeling, and the experimental chamber opera Just Visiting (X-Ray Vision). Released in May 2021, his album The Killing Jar is an apocalyptic meditation on the COVID-19 pandemic. His latest project, The Secret Life of the Paramecium, is a surrealist song cycle navigating a series of 22 microbiological vignettes based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot. It premiered as part of the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency to sold out audiences in September, 2022.

In addition to his compositional work, he enjoys a career as a pianist and keyboardist, and has performed internationally in the realms of free improvisation, new music, jazz, and rock. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians including Bill Baird, Brian Baumbusch, Nicolas Collins, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Noertker, Zeena Parkins, Rent Romus, and William Winant. From 2019-20, he performed as the pianist for the legendary jazz unit the Art Ensemble of Chicago.