Chris Cutler

Pop music legend Chris Cutler has been involved in experimental music since the early 1970's, primarily with the British ensemble Henry Cow which alternated complex thoroughly-composed pieces with spontansously improvised sessions in concert tours, recordings, dance and theatre projects. In 1997 members of Henry Cow, The Mike Westbrook Orchestra and Frankie Armstrong formed a big band to tour Europe. Cutler continues to participate in many advanced and pop music groups such as the Art Bears, Cassiber, Pere Ubu, Hail, and The Wooden Birds, and collaborates with other new music creators. He has appeared on more than 100 recordings. On this tape, Cutler unfolds an expansive improvisation entitled "Electrified Drumkit" played on a mass of percussion instruments, including a conventional rock/jazz drum set, timbales, pots and pans, electric toothbrush, small bells and drums, metal plates, mbiras, singing bowls, metal grates, and other common and invented small objects, all of which are scrapped, struck, bowed, vibrated, and transformed electronically into a kaleidoscope of continuously changing timbres. In his interview, Cutler discusses his involvement with Henry Cow, and his theory concerning the development of musical notation, and the sociological and musical situation he believes this has engendered. Click here to view clip.