Atlanta producer Chris Brann is a man of many names — whether he likes it or not.

Brann is Wamdue Project, which boasts the #1 dance single in the U.S. with "King of My Castle" (RealAudio excerpt). Brann is also P'taah, whose experimental electronic-jazz album, Compressed Light, comes out next month, as well as the Ananda Project, creator of "Cascade's Color," an upcoming single featuring remixes by Danny Tenaglia and Everything But the Girl's Ben Watt.

"I would prefer for it all to be one name," Brann, 28, said. "You know, 'Wow, that's Chris Brann.' Because it's all me making the music. And it's tiring coming up with all these marketing strategies."

Brann has had an easier time promoting Wamdue Project lately, thanks to "King of My Castle," a four-year-old track that sold 1 million copies worldwide last year, assisted by a remix by the Italian duo Bini & Martini. (The original version was released in 1998 on the Wamdue album Program Yourself.)

"It's kind of ironic. I never really set out to be pop," Brann said. "But sometimes you never know. It's great exposure, because at this point in the U.S. I'm still very underground."

Music For the Mind

What's even stranger is that Brann is not much of a house-music fan. He mostly listens to obscure jazz, and his passion for production lies in creating music geared toward the mind rather than the dance floor.

P'taah, his new organic jazz project that has received critical acclaim for the single "Flying High" (RealAudio excerpt), is Brann's true love. He described the music as "free-jazz stuff mixed with the Brazilian angle, mixed with the trip-hop or drum & bass angle, mixed with the abstract thing.

"It's definitely a release for me," he said. "I've felt like I had to do house music just to appeal to the labels I've been working with. So when the chance to do P'taah came along, I jumped at it. It was so refreshing and lends itself to a lot more creative flexibility and freedom to just do what I do naturally.

"With house music, it's more formatted," he said. "You have to think about the DJ who is going to be playing it. With P'taah, it's balls-to-the-wall creative expression."

Many Faces

"We encourage Chris with his other projects," Davey Gold, promotions manager at Strictly Rhythm, Wamdue's label, said. "We're glad to see him branching out and exploring other territories. The Wamdue album, Program Yourself, is a perfect example of the many faces of Chris Brann."

"I heard some of P'taah as it was in progress and it blew me away," said Andrew Jervis, vice president of Ubiquity Recordings, which is releasing Compressed Light. "I called his manager and said this is exactly what we're trying to — push the boundaries between club and traditional Brazilian and English music."

Compressed Light (RealAudio excerpt of title track) is due May 23.

Brann's record-making rules differ from the industry standard. "Most of the time in dance music, you concentrate on a bunch of singles that turn into an album later," he said. "I'm more about the album as expression."

Jervis said Ubiquity plans to continue releasing P'taah's records and will promote the new album with a live tour and a remix album in the fall.

Brann has an upcoming full-length as Ananda Project, due in late summer on the King Street/Nitegrooves imprint. "Cascade's Color," the first single, is due in June.

He's also working on a Santal Project album for the Chicago label Guidance, and has begun production on the next Wamdue Project release.

Balancing Act

"If it were up to me, I'd be like, 'Bam, this is what I am,' " Brann said of the imminent Wamdue album. "But since it's evolved into this big corporate media machine, I have to think more about the product and appeasing the A&R people. It's ultimately going to be a compromise."

With the success of "King of My Castle," Brann also has become a sought-after remixer, though he deflects the compliment.

"To take someone else's concept and keep the integrity without bastardizing it is really difficult to do," Brann said. "I don't consider myself good at remixing. To tell you the truth, and this sounds bad, I'm just not into remix culture. I'm into what the artist's first intent was."