Derry Brownson, an English musician and founding member of EMF who played keyboards and sampler, died Aug. 13, 2026, at 55 of a brain tumour, the BBC reported.
He helped form EMF in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, in 1989, playing keyboards and sampler—an electronic instrument used to trigger recorded sounds—in the original lineup behind the band’s debut single, Unbelievable. The song reached No. 3 in the United Kingdom and No. 1 in the United States in 1990–91. Brownson was credited with composition and sampling on Schubert Dip, the band’s 1991 debut studio album.
EMF’s initial run ended in the mid-1990s after three studio albums. The group reunited in 2001 for a concert connected to a greatest-hits compilation. Brownson was in the lineup when EMF returned to studio releases with Go Go Sapiens in 2022 and The Beauty and the Chaos in 2024.
