"Chris Abrahams was born in Oamaru, New Zealand but grew up in Sydney, Australia.

He became very active in the Sydney jazz scene in the early eighties playing with modern jazz groups including Mark Simmonds' Freeboppers and The Keys Music Orchestra. With Lloyd Swanton he formed the 60's modern jazz-influenced The Benders in 1982. During its day, the band released three albums - E, False Laughter and Distance.

In 1984 Chris recorded and released his first solo piano album - Piano, followed in 1986 by Walk.

In 1985 Chris became a founding member of the Sydney indie rock band The Sparklers. As a result of this, Chris began working regularly with the singer and songwriter Melanie Oxley. Chris collaborated with Melanie, writing songs and producing albums, throughout the nineties. There are five releases with her: Resisting Calm (1990), Welcome to Violet (1992), Coal (1994), Jerusalem Bay (1998) and Blood Oranges (2003).

Chris released a third solo piano album, Glow, in 2001. This was followed in 2003 by Streaming, and then Thrown (2004), Play Scar (2010) and Memory Night (2013).

Chris has collaborated, in both recording and performance, with many contemporary improvising musicians including Burkhard Beins, Mike Cooper and Anthony Pateras. He performs regularly in the improvising music scenes both in Australia and Europe."

"The Berlin-based clarinetist and composer/performer focuses on a subtle musicality of sound and noise phenomena. As an autodidact he has developed dubious manners on his instrument. His music is rooted in abstractness, including increasingly an insidious expressivity and a pre-melodic quality. He works on the borderline of composition and improvisation, with a preference for long-term collaborations.

His projects are The International Nothing - clarinet duo with Michael Thieke (cd: Mainstream, ftarri 2006 / less action, less excitement, less everything, ftarri 2010 / the dark side of success, ftarri 2014), los glissandinos with klaus filip (cd: Stand clear, creative sources 2005), the magic i.D. - Song Project with margareth kammerer, christof kurzmann & michael thieke (cd/vinyl: Till my breath gives out, erstwhile 2008 / i'm so awake - sleepless i feel, staubgold 2011), duo with Burkhard Stangl (cd: Musik - ein portrait in sehnsucht, erstwhile 2009), the dogmatics with Chris Abrahams (lp: The sacrifice for the music became our lifestyle, monotype 2012), here comes the sun with gunter schneider & barbara romen (cd: Here comes the sun, mikroton 2012), Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone with Christof kurzmann (cd: First time ever i saw your face, quincunx 2006), duo with Bernhard Gal (cd: Going round in serpentines, charhizma 2005), rebecca with michael renkel (cd: Rebecca [two variations], charhizma 2003), No Furniture with Boris Baltschun and Axel Dörner (cd: No furniture, creative sources 2003), and (exceptionally) solo.

Kai has been the commander of Raumschiff Zitrone from 2000 to 2006, joined by christof kurzmann in 2002. Recently both commanders have been retired and closed the legendary raumschiff zitrone which has presented concerts of countless international artists. In 2001 he co-initiated together with gregor hotz and conrad noack berlin's experimental music platform www.Echtzeitmusik.De.

Kai was artist-in-residense at quartier21 (part of museumsquartierwien, vienna) in 2004. As a result of fruitful collaborations and good friendships vienna feels like a second home for him."