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Brown, Earle / David Ryan / Christian Wolff / Morton Feldman / Thanos Chrysakis / Tim Hodgkinson: Mu (Aural Terrains)

Recorded live at London's Café OTO in December 2023, this extraordinary collective of guitarists, bass clarinetists, contrabassists, and trumpet interprets works by Earle Brown, David Ryan, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, Thanos Chrysakis, and Tim Hodgkinson, capturing a single evening of adventurous performances that merge contemporary composition with improvisatory spirit.
 

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Personnel:



William Crosby-classical guitar, electric guitar

Jason Alder-bass clarinet

Chris Cundy-bass clarinet

Tim Hodgkinson-bass clarinet

Michelle Hromin-bass clarinet

Hannah Shilvock-bass clarinet

David Ryan-conducting

Dominic Lash-contrabass

Gwen Reed-contrabass

Jack Jones-trumpet

James O'Sullivan-electric guitar

Leo Geyer-conducting


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Label: Aural Terrains
Catalog ID: TRRN1857
Squidco Product Code: 36471

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: UK
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded live at Cafe OTO. in London, UK, on December 10th, 2023, by Rory Salter.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Thanos Chrysakis is a Greek composer, musician, producer and sound-artist. He is best known for his work in electronic and contemporary music, improvisation, and electro-acoustic music.

With several albums to his name his work has appeared in festivals and events in numerous countries, including CYNETart Festival, Festspielhaus Hellerau - Dresden, Artus Contemporary Arts Studio - Budapest, CRUCE Gallery - Madrid, Fylkingen - Stockholm, Relative (Cross) Hearings festival - Budapest, Festival Futura - Crest - Drôme, FACT Centre - Liverpool, Association Ryoanji - Ahun - Creuse, The Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale - Hanover - New Hampshire, Areté Gallery - Brooklyn - New York, UC San Diego - California - San Diego, Berner Münster - Bern, Fabbrica del Vapore - Milan, Grünewaldsalen - Svensk Musikvår - Stockholm, Splendor - Amsterdam, Logos Foundation - Ghent, Palacio de Bellas Artes - Mexico City, Műcsarnok Kunsthalle - Budapest, Spektrum - Berlin, Susikirtimai X - Vilnius, Festival del Bosque GERMINAL - Mexico City, ДОМ - Moscow, Oosterkerk - Amsterdam, KLANG ! - Montpellier, Nádor Terem - Budapest, Utzon Centre - Aalborg, New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theatre - St. Petersburg, Center for New Music - San Francisco, Västerås Konstmuseum - Västerås, Störung festival - Barcelona, BMIC Cutting Edge concert series at The Warehouse - London.

His music was among the selected works at the International Competition de Musique et d'Art Sonore Electroacoustiques de Bourges 2005, in the category oeuvre d'art sonore électroacoustique, while received an honorary mention in 2006 at the 7th International Electroacoustic Competition Musica Viva in Lisbon (the jury was constituted by Morton Subotnick (USA), François Bayle (France), and Miguel Azguime (Portugal).

He operates the Aural Terrains record label since 2007 where he has released part of his work until now, alongside releases by Kim Cascone, Franscisco López, Tomas Phillips, Dan Warburton, Szilárd Mezei, Michael Edwards, Wade Matthews, Dganit Elyakim, Edith Alonso, Luis Tabuenca, Jeff Gburek, Philippe Petit, Steve Noble, Milo Fine, Liam Hockley and David Ryan among others.

He has written music for musicians of the Hyperion Ensemble, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, the Hermes Ensemble, the Nemø Ensemble, the Konus Saxophone Quartett, and the Shadanga Duo among others. Close collaborations with Tim Hodgkinson, Vincent Royer, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Lori Freedman, Jason Alder, Julie Kjaer, Henriette Jensen, William Lang, Wilfrido Terrazas, Philippe Brunet, Wade Matthews, Ernesto Rodrigues, Ove Volquartz to name but a few.



Tim Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds, lap steel guitar, and keyboards. He first became known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968. After the demise of Henry Cow, he participated in numerous bands and projects, eventually concentrating on composing contemporary music and performing as an improviser.



David Ryan is a visual artist and musician. He has long been associated with experimental music and improvisation, having performed with many distinguished musicians including Anton Lukoszevieze, John Edwards, Ian Mitchell, Alberto Popolla, John Tilbury, Luca Venitucci, Gianni Trovalusci amongst others. In the 1990s/early 2000s he curated many concert series featuring both improvisors and composers, including Bunita Marcus, Kaija Saariaho, Ken Vandermark and many others as well as concert collaborations with Earle Brown, David Behrman, Phill Niblock and Christian Wolff. In 2016 he was an Abbey Fellow at the British School at Rome, and in 2020 was a judge for the Franco Evangelisti prize in composition, Rome. Recent pieces have been broadcast on Radiophrenia, CCA Glasgow and also at the Video Poetry festival, Athens (Institute of Experimental Arts). He is currently Associate Professor in Fine Art at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.



William Crosby is a British/Greek-Cypriot artist, musician, pedagogue, and agitator based in Cambridge/ London, UK.

His artistic practice is rooted in the environmental humanities, sound art, and radical pedagogies, working with field recordings, text scores, improvisation, writing, and communal sound-making to ask how sound can develop communal pedagogical tools fit for our age of climate crises. This work thinks about how sound enables embodied encounters with others, and how these stand as a radical act of co-working.

As a classical/electric guitarist, William has recently released both solo and ensemble music on Aural Terrains, Elektramusic, and Bad Vibrations/Fuzz Club. He collaborates closely with composers, Thanos Chrysakis and David Ryan, on developing, performing, and recording new music for guitar. He is also a core member of OperaApertaUK, an experimental opera group, who have collaborated with a range of musicians, including Angharad Davies, Dominic Lash, Lucy Railton, and Mark Sanders amongst others.

William Crosby is a doctoral candidate within CRiSAP (Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice) at University of the Arts, London. He lectures at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge in music, sound, and media, and teaches on the BA & MA Sound Arts pathways at LCC:UAL. [www.crosbywilliam.com]



Dominic Lash is an improviser and composer. The musicians he has worked with include Cristián Alvear, John Butcher, Tony Conrad, Angharad Davies, John Edwards, Jürg Frey, Matthew Grigg, Elizabeth Harnik, James Ilgenfritz, Charlotte Keeffe, Paul Lytton, Joe Morris, Steve Noble, Evan Parker, Éliane Radigue, Mark Sanders, Roger Turner, Lisa Ullén, Fay Victor, Alex Ward, and Jason Yarde.



Chris Cundy

Playing bass clarinet and rarified woodwind instruments Chris Cundy is a composer and performer with a practice rooted in experimental and improvised settings. His work also crosses over into popular music and he has worked with a variety of songwriters and groups including Timber Timbre, Cold Specks (aka Ladan Hussein), Thor & Friends, Baby Dee & Little Annie, and Guillemots.

Growing up in the Medway towns Chris became friends with artist and punk musician Billy Childish who introduced him to the exploits of homemade music-making at an early age. This led to a lasting DIY attitude and by the time he was 12 Chris had already started out as a street performer and busker. After hearing Eric Dolphy's music he took up the bass clarinet. He remains self-taught.

Also a visual artist, Chris studied painting at Cheltenham where he discovered a synergy between drawing practices and improvised music. This led to self-developed playing techniques using multi-phonics, circular breathing, exploring micro tonality and generally speaking a more tactile approach to the instrument. Chris also performs contemporary classical music and has premiered works by Greek composer Thanos Chrysakis. He performs as a soloist and as a member of The Set Ensemble.

He is also involved with theatre music, and recently contributed to an original soundtrack for Florian Zeller's stage play The Mother starring Gina McKee. Chris has performed at Shakespeare's Globe and toured with circus companies NoFit State, and Imagineer.

One off sessions have seen Chris performing alongside Moby, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Lol Coxhill, Vieux Farka Touré, Fatoumata Diawara, Alexander Hawkins, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Lisa Hannigan.

He has released three solo albums, Gustav Lost in 2016 (FMR Records), The Disruptive Forest in 2017 (Confront), and the mini-album Crude Attempt in 2020 (Pressing Records). A further album of acoustic bass clarinet compositions is expected in 2021 titled Of All The Common Flowers.



Originally from Somerset, Hannah Shilvock is a clarinet/bass clarinet specialist, woodwind doubler and arranger based in Brighton. Hannah is a BG France, RATstands and DEBUT Classical Horizon Artist. Hannah is a pioneer of the bass clarinet as a solo instrument, and has recently published her arrangement of Debussy's Cello Sonata arranged for bass clarinet and piano, with Alea Publishing.

Hannah has performed alongside musicians such as Grammy award winning jazz pianist Bill Laurance, and with ensembles such as the European Union Chamber Orchestra and the Hastings Philharmonic.



Gwen Reed works regularly as an improviser, session musician, with contemporary music projects, large orchestral performances, new and classic musicals, as well as in small chamber settings. Gwen has performed throughout Europe and the United States with ensembles such as the London Contemporary Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, Chineke! Orchestra, Plus-Minus Ensemble, Hyperion Ensemble UK, as well as acting as a founding member of Ensemble x.y. She is a regular performer at the London Contemporary Music Festival and the BBC Proms. Gwen can be heard on popular albums by Thom Yorke, as well as cast recordings for the Stephen Schwartz musical Working!, Joanna Bailie's Artificial Environments, and various film soundtracks.



Jack Jones is a musician born and based in London, UK. As Artistic Director of The Listening Project, Jack is pushing himself to perform a more contemporary repertoire and invite people in to a re-imagined world of live performance.



James O'Sullivan is a London-based experimental guitar player and improvisor who employs a playful but meticulous approach to the instrument through the bringing-together of physicality, resonance, detail and dynamics. He seeks to co-create a rich, layered and engaging music that entwines the excitement of the moment with a creative, focused exploration, shaping an enduring document of the guitar's potential.

His interest in improvisation, recording and performance has led him to record and perform across the UK and internationally, both solo and with numerous improvised music groups. More long-standing groups include Muster, with Dan Powell (electronics), a duo with Paul May (percussionist), the improvising trio Found Drowned, and, most recently, LUFT, a trio with Chris Hill and Alan Newcombe. His playing also features on several releases on the Aural Terrains imprint. He has released three solo albums, feed back couple, (2011), IL Y A, (2017) and Lovely Error (2022). Recent releases include Repetition Disguises, an electric guitar duo with Nathan Moore, CHORD, with Ross Lambert, Nathan Moore and Eddie Prévost, and the eponymous LUFT (Hill/ Newcombe/O'Sullivan), released in March 2024.



Leo Geyer is a composer, conductor and presenter. He began his career at the Royal Opera House as a Cover Conductor for The Royal Ballet and is now the Founder and Artistic Director of Constella OperaBallet.

As a guest conductor, Leo has collaborated with the BBC Concert Orchestra, English National Opera, Birmingham Contemporary Music Ensemble, the National Theatre and other ensembles. Leo has received various accolades for composition the most recent of which is the Lord Mayor's Composition Prize.

Leo's music has been described by The Times as "imaginative and beautifully shaped", and has received performances by ensembles including the English Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Rambert Dance Company and Opera North. Leo is currently working on his first major film commission, creating a soundtrack for the Ukrainian silent film Man with a Movie Camera. Leo is studying for a doctorate in opera-ballet composition as the Senior Music Scholar at St Catherine's College, Oxford and is an Associate Lecturer in Composition at Plymouth University.

Following his traineeship with the BBC, Leo has presented for BBC Radio 3 and Sky Arts TV and is currently creating a major TV documentary with Two Rivers Media. In addition, Leo has also appeared as an artist on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and discussed musical matters on BBC News.



Jason Alder is a low clarinet specialist and holds degrees in clarinet performance (Michigan State University- US), bass clarinet performance (Conservatorium van Amsterdam- NL), creative improvisation (Artez Conservatorium- NL), as well as post-graduate study in the application of the advanced rhythmic principles of South Indian Karnatic music to contemporary Western classical and jazz music (Contemporary Music and Improvisation through Non-Western Techniques). He is currently conducting PhD research on the sonic possibilities on the contrabass clarinet (Royal Northern College of Music- UK). He is well-established as a performer of contemporary music and frequently works with composers to develop and premiere new works either as a soloist, with his flute-clarinet Shadanga Duo, the Four New Brothers Bass Clarinet Quartet, or in a variety of other formations. As well as composed music, Jason regularly performs internationally as an improviser, electroacoustic musician, and in world music and jazz bands. He is often found performing, lecturing, or on panel discussion at festivals around the world, including the International ClarinetFests, European Clarinet Festivals, Istanbul Woodwind Festival, American Single Reed Summit, Netherlands Gaudeamus New Music Festival, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Havana Festival of Contemporary Music, and Leeds International Festival of Artistic Innovation. He is also sought after as a recording engineer for many classical and jazz musicians around Europe. Originally from metro-Detroit, Jason has lived in Europe since 2006 and is an endorsing Artist for Selmer clarinets, D'Addario reeds, Behn mouthpieces, and Silverstein ligatures.



Michelle Hromin is a Croatian-American multidisciplinary artist, specializing in contemporary clarinet performance, writing, and curation. She uses mediums such as spoken word, electronics, and improvisation in her artistic practice to explore her identity, heritage, and human relationships. Recent engagements include touring "A Steve Reich Celebration" with the Colin Currie Group in Japan and across the US and performing at the BBC Proms. As an in-demand clarinetist, she has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Tokyo Opera City, Iklectik, and Cafe Oto and worked with groups such as eighth blackbird, English National Opera, London Mozart Players, Fifth House Ensemble, Lisa Bielawa's Broadcast from Here series, Audentia Ensemble, and International Contemporary Ensemble.


Artist Biographies

"William Crosby is a composer and musician from the UK. His artistic practice incorporates guitar playing (electric and acoustic), compositions, sound works, film, performance, text, installation, and thematically considers ecologies in their various forms, from the micro-ecologies of day-to-day interactions and archives, to posthuman sound practice and larger issues around climate emergency. He is a member of the video/performance ensemble Opera Aperta, and art/geology group MUD Collective, and also teaches improvisation/sound art as a visiting lecturer at University of the Arts, London."

-https://www.auralterrains.com/releases/48 (Aural Terrains)
9/10/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Jason Alder is a low clarinet specialist and holds degrees in clarinet performance (Michigan State University- US), bass clarinet performance (Conservatorium van Amsterdam- NL), creative improvisation (Artez Conservatorium- NL), as well as post-graduate study in the application of the advanced rhythmic principles of South Indian Karnatic music to contemporary Western classical and jazz music (Contemporary Music and Improvisation through Non-Western Techniques). He is currently conducting PhD research on the sonic possibilities on the contrabass clarinet (Royal Northern College of Music- UK). He is well-established as a performer of contemporary music and frequently works with composers to develop and premiere new works either as a soloist, with his flute-clarinet Shadanga Duo, the Four New Brothers Bass Clarinet Quartet, or in a variety of other formations. As well as composed music, Jason regularly performs internationally as an improviser, electroacoustic musician, and in world music and jazz bands. He is often found performing, lecturing, or on panel discussion at festivals around the world, including the International ClarinetFests, European Clarinet Festivals, Istanbul Woodwind Festival, American Single Reed Summit, Netherlands Gaudeamus New Music Festival, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Havana Festival of Contemporary Music, and Leeds International Festival of Artistic Innovation. He is also sought after as a recording engineer for many classical and jazz musicians around Europe. Originally from metro-Detroit, Jason has lived in Europe since 2006 and is an endorsing Artist for Selmer clarinets, D'Addario reeds, Behn mouthpieces, and Silverstein ligatures."

-Aural Terrains (http://auralterrains.com/releases/40)
9/10/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Playing bass clarinet, various saxophones, and other unusual woodwind instruments Chris splits his time between the UK where he lives and Canada. He has toured internationally with Cold Specks, Timber Timbre, Guillemots, and Fyfe Dangerfield and regularly accompanies songwriters such as Little Annie, Baby Dee, Devon Sproule, and Edd Donovan. His practice extends from popular music to theatre, experimental and improvised performances and he has appeared on over sixty commercial recordings. Recently Chris has started to release a series of albums under his own name.

Chris grew up in Medway, Kent and was drawn into the local music scene at a young age where he become friends with Billy Childish - artist, musician, and founder of Hangman Records & Books. During visits to Childish's kitchen Chris was exposed to the exploits of homemade music-making. This formative period instilled a DIY approach and by the time Chris was 14 he had already started out as a street busker. After hearing the Eric Dolphy Memorial Album he took up bass clarinet. He is self-taught.

He went on to study painting at Cheltenham art college. During this period he began to establish experimental projects including Grace & Delete - a duo with fellow painter and electronics musician James Dunn. He also started to explore self-developed playing techniques such as multi-phonics, circular breathing, micro tonality and generally speaking a more tactile approach to the instrument. This led him to working with composers including Thanos Chrysakis, and Pete M Wyer. At Cheltenham he also met songwriter Fyfe Dangerfield who he has continued to collaborate with on a number of occasions since - most notoriously as an additional saxophonist for the Mercury Prize nominated indie-pop group Guillemots.

Other projects include several albums with electronica group Longstone and performing music for Nofit State Circus. One off sessions have seen Chris performing with Moby, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Vieux Farka Touré, Fatoumata Diawara, Alexander Hawkins, and Lisa Hannigan. He has also written theatre music and recently worked with composer Jon Nicholls on an original soundtrack for Florian Zellar's The Mother starring Gina McKee."

-Chris Cundy Website (http://www.chriscundy.com/about.html)
9/10/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Tim Hodgkinson (b. 1949) studied social anthropology at Cambridge, and co-founded the politically and musically radical group HENRY COW with Fred Frith in 1968. In addition to composing, he has a long involvement in improvisation, and came back to anthropology in the 1990's with research into music and shamanism in Siberia.

He has participated in many concerts with Iancu Dumitrescu's Hyperion Ensemble both as bass clarinetist and composer and conductor. His compositions have been interpreted in such international festivals as: Spectrum XXI (Brussels, Paris, Geneva, , Berlin, London), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (U.K.) where he was a featured composer in 2007, Craiova and Ploiesti Festivals (Romania), Guarda Festival (Portugal), Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano (Italy), Konfrontationen Festival (Austria), Nordlyd Festival (Norway), Musique Action (France) and the European Symposium of Experimental Music at Barcelona.

His Piece for Harp and Cello was selected for the SPNM shortlist in 2005. His composition SHHH was accepted for the IMEB electroacoustic music archive at Bourges in 2006. His piece Fragor appeared in the Martin Scorsese film Shutter Island in 2010. He has worked with Hyperion Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Ne(X)tworks, the Bergersen String Quartet, London Sinfonietta, Insomnio Ensemble, Phoenix Ensemble, Basler Schlagzeug Trio, Nidaros Slagverkensemble, Bindou Ensemble.

As an improvising musician on reeds and lap steel guitar Tim Hodgkinson has performed all over the world with many of the most acclaimed artists in the field, and continues to be fully engaged in the celebrated Konk Pack trio with Roger Turner and Thomas Lehn. In 2009 he released KLARNT - a CD of solo clarinet improvisations.

With Ken Hyder, and Gendos Chamzyryn from Tuva, he works in the K-Space project: numerous tours of Europe and Siberia and CD releases - including INFINITY, a set of recordings that uses customised software to re-compose the music with each listening. In 2009, K-Space developed a sound-installation for the exhibition Shamans of Siberia at the Museum of Ethnology in Stuttgart.

As a writer, he has published articles and reviews on improvised music, musique concrète, spectralism, the ethnomusicology of shamanism, and the aesthetic problems of the impact of new technology on contemporary music - in, amongst others, Perspectives of New Music, Arcana, Contemporary Music Review, Musicworks, The Wire, Cambridge Anthropology, Variant, Rer Quarterly, and Resonance Magazine. His book, MUSIC AND THE MYTH OF WHOLENESS will be published by MIT in January 2016.

He has given lectures, workshops and seminars at Cagliari and Lyon Conservatoires, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, at Goldsmiths College and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, at Istanbul, Edinburgh and Cornell Universities, and art schools in several European countries, at COMA summer school, and at the Verband für Aktuelle Musik in Hamburg where he was artist in residence in 2010."

-Tim Hodgkinson Website (http://www.timhodgkinson.co.uk/information.html)
9/10/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"David Ryan is a visual artist and writer based in London and Cambridge, who is also actively involved in contemporary music. He studied at Liverpool and Coventry Polytechnics, and also on a travelling German Scholarship to Hamburg, Lubeck and Berlin. His extensive writing on art and music includes pieces on Jessica Stockholder, Bernard Frize, John Riddy, Shirley Kaneda, Fabian Marcaccio, Franz Ackermann, David Reed, Katherina Grosse, Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, Helmut Lachenmann and Jonathan Lasker for various art publications including Modern Painters, Dissonanz in Switzerland, Leonardo Music Journal, San Francisco, Art Papers USA, Contemporary Visual Arts, Contemporary, London, Artpress, Paris, and Tempo, and Art Monthly, London. Catalogue contributions include Hybrids for Tate Liverpool, and Jessica Stockholder/Fabian Marcaccio for Sammlung Goetz, Munich. He has given lectures on abstract painting including venues such as the UNAM (National University of Mexico), Mexico, Warwick Arts Centre, Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt, Germany, Dahl Gallery, Lucerne, Switzerland, and Tate Liverpool, UK. His publication Talking Painting: Dialogues with 12 Contemporary Abstract Painters (2002) is published by Routledge. He has lectured at Christies, Sothebys, and is currently reader in Fine Art at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. He has exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery (Open Exhibition), London, British Abstract Painters, Flowers West, Los Angeles, USA; Painting and Time at the Nunnery Gallery, London, British Abstract Painting 2001 at Flowers East, London, Surface Connections, Holden Gallery Manchester, Illuminate at Jasmine Studios, Hammersmith, London, Flux at London Bridge Tunnels, On the Way to Things at Churchill College, Cambridge, Lines of Enquiry at Kettles Yard, Cambridge, and Transfer at Keith Talent gallery, London.

As a performer Ryan has also been actively involved in contemporary music and performed for Danish Radio; Huddersfield International Contemporary Music Festival; New Music Marathon, Northwestern University, Chicago; The Barbican Art Centre, London (Cage Uncaged, 2004), Line-Point-Line, Los Angeles, and is Director of Dal Niente Projects which presents neglected modernist and contemporary experimental works in London. He has also collaborated with numerous improvising musicians such as John Edwards, John Butcher, Eddie Prevost and numerous others, and has a longstanding duo with clarinetist Ian Mitchell. Italian composer Nicola Sani collaborated on Non tutte ie Isole...an 'opera' for three instrumentalists and sound projection in October 2003, presenting a three-part video projection. Other collaborations with Sani include AchaB 3 at the 2006 Synthese Festival, Bourges France (a 3 screen video). He has also composed Prelude/Postlude 2, part of Sonic Illuminations presented at the BFI, London in 2008. Ryan has had numerous awards including Arts Council of England, Jazz Services, Britten-Pears; Holst and Hinrichsen Foundations; Sonora, Rome, as well as Italian and American Government grants. He was presented at the 2008 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival with Nicola Sani's AchaB in a new version. His recent films include Knots and Fields (New Music at Darmstadt - with interviews with Pierre Boulez and Brian Ferneyhough), a collaboration directed by Andrew Chesher, and Via di San Teodoro 8 (2010 -11). Recent exhibitions and screenings include Crossing Abstraction, 2009 at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethianen, Berlin; and screenings at Berlin Konzerthaus, 2011; International Music Institute, Darmstadt; Viewfinder, Seoul, Korea, 2011; Italian Cultural Institutes, London and Stockholm, De la Warr Pavillion, 2010/11, and All Frontiers Festival, Monfalcone, Italy 2011, and screenings scheduled for Brussels and New York in 2012."

-David Ryan Website (http://www.david-ryan.co.uk/biography.html)
9/10/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Born Cambridge, England, in January 1980; played bass guitar since 1994; studied with Hugh Boyd and Pascha Milner and at Basstech (London) with Rob Burns, Terry Gregory and others. Played double bass since 2001; basically self taught, with grateful thanks to Simon H. Fell. First class BA in English Literature from Oxford University (2002). Received MA Composition from Oxford Brookes University in 2003, having studied with Paul Whitty, Ray Lee and others. Received PhD from Brunel University in 2010, having studied the work of Derek Bailey, Helmut Lachenmann and JH Prynne and been supervised by Richard Barrett and John Croft."

-Dominic Lash Website (http://dominiclash.blogspot.com/p/dominic-lash_5.html)
9/10/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Gwen Reed (London) Double Bass

Gwen is a vibrant and versatile bassist with vast experience in contemporary music, chamber and orchestral playing, session work, and more."

-Encore Musicians (https://encoremusicians.com/Gwen-Reed)
9/10/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Using a combination of feedback, conventional guitar techniques and instrumental preparations, London-based musician James O' Sullivan exploits the full sonic potential of electric guitar and amplifier, relating them meaningfully to the immediate physical environment.

His interest in improvisation, recording and performance has led him to record and perform across the UK and internationally, both solo and with numerous improvised music groups. More longstanding arrangements include Found Drowned, a trio with Pete Marsh and Paul May, and his collaboration with Thanos Chrysakis on several releases on the Aural Terrains imprint.

His debut solo album, 'feed back couple', was released in 2011. His second solo album, IL Y A, is out now on the Linear Obsessional imprint."

-Aural Terrains (http://auralterrains.com/releases/39)
9/10/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Fields and Refrains (2021) 15:10

2. 4 Systems (1954) 5:09

3. Tilbury 4 (1970) 5:25

4. The Possibility of a New Work for Electric Guitar (1966) 7:03

5. Riverwind (2023) 17:50

6. One to Five (circa 1970) 5:57

7. Kryptoplegma (2023) 14:12

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Avant-Garde
RIO (Rock in Opposition)
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Large Ensembles
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Search for other titles on the label:
Aural Terrains.


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Employing multiphonics, circular breathing and unusual sonic phenomena of immense control over the lowest of clarinets--the bass clarinet and contra bass clarinet--UK-based multi-reedist Jason Alder performs the two-part "Milieu Interiuer" composition by Greek composer Thanos Chrysakis, along with three other Chrysakis compositions for solo and layered clarinets.
Grisey, Gerard / Iancu Dumitrescu / Niels Christian Rasmussen / Thanos Chrysakis / Salvatore Sciarrino / Lori Freedman / Tim Hodgkinson
Music for Violas, Bass Clarinets & Flutes
(Aural Terrains)
Compositions for violas, bass clarinets and flutes performed by Vincent Royer, Jill Valentine, Jason Alder, Chris Cundy, Tim Hodgkinson, Yoni Silver, Lori Freedman, Carla Rees, Karin de Fleyt, Thanos Chrysakis, Katrina Lauder, with compositions from Gerard Grisey, Iancu Dumitrescu, Thanos Chrysakis, Niels Rasmussen, Salvatore Sciarrino, Lori Freedman, and Tim Hodgkinson.
Cundy, Chris
Mountains
(Aural Terrains)
Bass clarinetist Chris Cundy, uses the studio as a performance tool for accompaniment along with pre-recorded tapes, as he contrasts two different composers--Cornelius Cardew & Ton de Leeuw and their compositions titled "Mountains", alongside a Cardew graphic score piece, and 2 work for 5 bass clarinets, from Thanos Chrysakis and John Cage, the latter from his Numbers series.
Chrysakis, Thanos / Chris Cundy
A Certain Slant Of Light
(Aural Terrains)
A 5-part electroacoustic improvisation from the UK duo of electronic and sound artist Thanos Chyrsakis and reedist Chris Cundy, the former using laptop computer, synthesizers, and copicat tape echo to create mesmerizing sheens of sound that circle and complement Cundy's bass clarinet, who also performs on megaphone, voice changer, zither, & objects; entrancing and captivating.
Hodgkinson, Tim / Jason Alder / Chris Cundy / Yoni Silver / Heather Roche / Shadanga Duo / Thanos Chrysakis
Music For Bass Clarinets
(Aural Terrains)
A live performance at London's Cafe OTO from composer Thanos Chrysakis, performing compositions focused on the deeper reeds from composers Christian Wolff, Iancu Dumitrescu, Hannes Kerschbaumer, Georges Aperghis, and Chrysakis himself, in configurations from solo to quintet, with Tim Hodgkinson, Jason Alder, Chris Cundy, Heather Roce, Yoni Silver, and Shadanga Duo.
Chrysakis, Thanos / Chris Cundy / Peer Schlechta / Ove Volquartz
Music for Two Organs & Two Bass Clarinets
(Aural Terrains)
Recording at the Neustadter Kirche in Hofgeismar, Germany, the quartet of Thanos Chrysakis and Peer Schlechta organ with Chris Cundy and Ove Volquartz on bass clarinets, use the resonance and massive sound of their organs to create active improvisations of deep tones, cries, and unearthly squalls, an incredible set of interacting textures and runs.
Frey, Jurg / Magnus Granberg
Early to Late
(Another Timbre)
New ensemble pieces by Jurg Frey and Magnus Granberg played by Ensemble Grizzana, commissioned by Another Timbre with the request that both start from the same two fragments of early music, one by Johannes Ockeghem, the other by William Byrd, each composer producing fascinatingly different pieces that both contain echoes of the source material.
Chrysakis, Thanos / Chris Cundy
Music for Chamber Organ & Contra Bass Clarinet
(Aural Terrains)
Electroacoustic improviser Thanos Chrysakis performing on the chamber organ at the University of Gloucestershire, UK in a collaboration with Chris Cundy on contra bass clarinet, for a subtle, mysterious and uncompromising four-part improvisation.
Chrysakis, Thanos / Chris Cundy / James O'Sullivan
Asphodels Abide
(Aural Terrains)
Sophisticated and interactive electroacoustic improvisation from the trio of Chris Cundy on bass clarinet, James O'Sullivan on guitar, and Aural Terrains label leader Thanos Chrysakis on laptop, synth and radio, performing the six part "Asphodels Abide".



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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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