Chris Cutler
Encyclopedia
Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group
Henry Cow
, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other band
s, including Art Bears
, News from Babel
, Pere Ubu
and (briefly) Gong
/Mothergong. He has collaborated with many musicians and groups, including Fred Frith
, Lindsay Cooper
, Zeena Parkins
, Peter Blegvad
and The Residents
, and has appeared on over 100 recordings. Cutler's career spans over three decades and he still performs actively throughout the world.
Cutler created and runs the British independent record label
Recommended Records
and is the editor of its sound-magazine, RēR Quarterly
. He has given a number of public lectures on music, published numerous articles and papers, and written a book on the political theory of contemporary music, File Under Popular
(1984). Cutler also assembled and released The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set
(2009), a collection of over 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings by the band.
to a British foreign correspondent
and his Austrian wife. In 1948 the family moved to England where Cutler was brought up. He never studied music but tried his hand at banjo, guitar, trumpet and flute while at school. He finally settled for drums "because I wanted to be in a band and drummers were scarcest." Cutler formed his first band in 1963, playing Shadows
and Ventures
instrumental covers, then played in several R&B
and soul
bands. In 1966 he joined a band called Louise which performed on the London psychedelic
club circuit for three years before breaking up. Looking for work, Cutler placed a series of advertisements in Melody Maker
over a period of nine months in 1970. This put him in touch with a number of musicians which led to Cutler and keyboardist Dave Stewart of Egg
forming The Ottawa Music Company, a 26 piece rock composer's orchestra, in 1971. Soon afterwards, Henry Cow
, looking to replace the drummer who had just left them, responded to one of Cutler's adverts and invited him to a rehearsal.
students Fred Frith
(guitar) and Tim Hodgkinson
(woodwind and keyboards). By 1971 the band had gone through a number of personnel changes and it was only when Cutler joined them in September 1971 that the group stabilised. Frith, Hodgkinson and Cutler became Henry Cow's permanent core until the band split up in 1978.
Henry Cow's prominence in progressive rock
circles launched the careers of many of its members, including Cutler's. Their music was uncompromising and this eventually put them at odds with the mainstream music business, forcing the band to do everything themselves: from recording, manufacturing and releasing their own albums, to organising their own tours and being their own management and agency. All this proved invaluable experience for Cutler that would assist him greatly in his future endeavours. The group spent most of its last three years touring Europe and many of Cutler's future collaborations resulted from contact made with musicians on these tours. In Henry Cow's last few months they initiated Rock in Opposition
(RIO), a collective of like-minded bands they had encountered through Europe that were united in their opposition to the music industry.
in London, an independent label and distribution network for RIO artists. The record label quickly filled the gap left by commercial labels and soon began to also release non-RIO bands and musicians. Recommended Records's aim was to produce records of high technical and musical quality, placing the musicians' interests first and profits second. This strategy, however, led to the label experiencing financial difficulties from time to time, but it stuck to its principles and has survived for over 25 years. There are a number of musicians whose work would never have seen the light of day had it not been for Cutler's label.
Cutler also founded November Books in 1982, the publishing wing of Recommended Records.
(1978–1981), a group formed by Cutler, Fred Frith (guitar and keyboards) and Dagmar Krause
(vocals, from Henry Cow) six months before Henry Cow split up (see Henry Cow
for details). Art Bears were a song-oriented group that recorded three studio albums. Cutler's main contributions were the songs' texts and (with Frith) the album productions. Art Bears (in the wake of Henry Cow) were well received by critics which further boosted Cutler's reputation in "progressive" circles.
In 1982, Cutler co-founded the Anglo
-German group Cassiber
(1982–1992) with German musicians Heiner Goebbels
, Alfred Harth
and Christoph Anders. Over the next ten years Cassiber produced five albums and toured Europe, Asia, South and North America. Their music was very experimental and often involved spontaneously improvising pre-existing structured and arranged material.
In 1983, Cutler formed News from Babel
(1983–1986), another song-orientated group with core members Cutler, Lindsay Cooper
(from Henry Cow), Zeena Parkins
(a United States harpist) and Dagmar Krause. With guest musicians (including Robert Wyatt
and Sally Potter
) they made two critically acclaimed studio albums, but did not perform live.
Cutler was a member of the United States experimental rock band Pere Ubu
between 1987 and 1989. He had first encountered them in Washington DC in 1978 while exploring the possibility of Henry Cow touring America (which never materialised as Henry Cow disbanded soon after). Cutler kept in touch with Pere Ubu until they split in the early 1980s and their singer, David Thomas
began a solo career. Cutler and Lindsay Cooper joined Thomas in 1982 to form David Thomas and the Pedestrians
, and for the next three years they toured Europe and North America and made two albums. Over the next few years, some of the ex-Pere Ubu members began joining Thomas's Pedestrians. Cooper left in 1985 and by 1987 the group (now called David Thomas and the Wooden Birds
) was effectively Pere Ubu again. As Pere Ubu, the band (with Cutler) made two albums. Cutler left in 1989.
In 1991, Cutler and German composer Lutz Glandien
recorded the critically acclaimed song project Domestic Stories. Cutler wrote the song texts and played drums, while Glandien composed and performed the music with samplers and computers. The supporting musicians were Dagmar Krause (vocals), Fred Frith (bass and guitar) and Alfred Harth (saxophone and clarinet). Cutler collaborated with Glandien again in 1994 to record Scenes from no Marriage and to participate in P53
, a commission for the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival with Zygmunt Krauze
, Marie Goyette, Otomo Yoshihide
.
The (ec) Nudes were a band Cutler, Wädi Gysi (guitar) and Amy Denio
(vocals, bass, saxophone, accordion) formed in 1993. The trio recorded Vanishing Point, a CD of songs with texts by Cutler and music by Gysi and Denio, and toured all over Europe and visited Brasil. Bob Drake
later joined the group on bass and as a quartet they toured all over Europe, Canada and Brazil
, but did not record. Cutler left the group in 1994.
Cutler and Yugoslav
keyboardist and composer Stevan Tickmayer formed The Science Group
in 1997 to record A Mere Coincidence (1999), an album of songs on science topics, including quantum mechanics
. Cutler wrote the texts, Tickmayer composed the music, and the rest of the group comprised Bob Drake (bass guitar, vocals) and Claudio Puntin (bass clarinet), with guests Amy Denio (vocals) and Fred Frith (guitar). In 2003 Cutler and Tickmayer reconstituted The Science Group as a quartet with Bob Drake (bass guitar) and Mike Johnson
(guitars), and released an instrumental album, Spoors. In 1998, he joined John Wolf Brennan
's sextet "HeXtet" to record a series of poetry settings, from Edgar Allan Poe
to contemporary Irish poets like Theo Dorgan
and Paula Meehan
, together with legendary singer Julie Tippetts
, saxophonist Evan Parker
, trombonist Paul Rutherford
and clarinetist Peter Whyman.
On 4 November 2006 Cutler, Jon Rose
(violin) and Zeena Parkins (harp) performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Ilan Volkov
, at the Glasgow City Halls in Glasgow
, Scotland. The concert was recorded and later broadcast by BBC Radio 3
on 24 March 2007.
Other musicians and bands Cutler has performed and recorded with over the years include Tim Hodgkinson, Lindsay Cooper, Peter Blegvad, John Greaves
, René Lussier
, Jean Derome
, Tom Cora
, Aksak Maboul
, The Residents
, The Work
, Duck and Cover, Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar, Kalahari Surfers
, Hail
, Biota
and Brainville 3
.
In 2009, Cutler toured North America with avant-garde Czech violinist Iva Bittová
.
, At the Edge of Chaos, by award winning film director
Shinji Aoyama. The first part of the film is equipment set-up and sound-checks, plus interviews with Cutler, while the second part is the improvised concert itself.
In 2001 Cutler released Solo: A Descent Into the Maelstrom, an album of solos on his electrified drum kit taken from live performances in Europe and the United States between August 2000 and May 2001. In 2005 he released Twice Around the World, an album of real-time recordings made from all over the world between 23.30 and midnight GMT. The material was taken from a daily half-hour radio programme Cutler ran for Resonance FM
: Out Of The Blue Radio between July 2001 and July 2002. A companion album, There and Back Again, comprising 44 environmental recordings, was released by Cutler in 2006.
By the time Cutler was drumming for Henry Cow in 1971, he had become a perfectly competent, albeit unconventional, drummer. The nature of Henry Cow was to experiment and explore and it was here that Cutler developed and refined his drumming techniques. It was also here that he started to electrify his drum kit. He began by attaching old telephone mouthpieces to drums and cymbals, and connecting them to an amplifier
and a reverb
unit. He later added a small mixer
for four independent inputs. The effect was very basic: a few low-grade inputs with only equalisation and reverberation to manipulate.
By 1982, Cutler had added another small mixer, a pitch shift
er and a delay unit
. He had also begun using cheap guitar transducer
s and a table full of additional wired objects (pans, metal trays, small tambours
and egg-slicers).
Cutler experimented briefly with drum pads triggered to play sampled
or synthesized
sounds, but quickly dismissed this option because he found them unresponsive and inflexible. They reduced a drum to nothing more than a switch: hit it and a pre-programmed sound is emitted, irrespective of how hard or in what manner the drum is struck. Cutler preferred real-time processing: amplifying and modifying actual sounds produced by the drum, making it a kind of an electroacoustic instrument, immediate and responsive, and retaining all the qualities of an acoustic drum kit.
Cutler went on to wire his entire drum kit, using a 16 channel mixer with multi-effect processors, a "Space pedal", a "Whammy pedal", a PDS 8000 and an old Boss pitch shifter/delay unit. In addition to transducers, he also attached miniature microphones to some of the drums and sticks. Cutler introduced feedback into the mix by placing a monitor speaker near the kit.
The electrified drum kit continues to evolve and to Cutler it is "satisfyingly unpredictable", responsive to all his old techniques while continuing to generate new ones. It has a unique "voice" that Cutler still has not plumbed the depths of. This is what prompted him to start giving solo performances because it tested his skill at playing an instrument he had to treat as an equal and evolve with.
With Henry Cow
/Slapp Happy
With Art Bears
With Aksak Maboul
With Cassiber
With The Work
With Fred Frith
With Lindsay Cooper
, Bill Gilonis
, Tim Hodgkinson
and Robert Wyatt
With News from Babel
With David Thomas and the Pedestrians
With Duck and Cover
Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar
With Peter Blegvad
With Pere Ubu
With Hail
With Lutz Glandien
With The (ec) Nudes
With P53
With Biota
With Zeena Parkins
With René Lussier
and Jean Derome
With John Wolf Brennan
With Thomas Dimuzio
With The Science Group
With Vril
With Brainville 3
With Thomas Dimuzio and Fred Frith
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
s, including Art Bears
Art Bears
Art Bears were an English avant-rock group formed during the disassembly of Henry Cow in 1978 by three of its members, Chris Cutler , Fred Frith and Dagmar Krause...
, News from Babel
News from Babel
News from Babel were an English avant-rock group founded in 1983 by Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, Zeena Parkins and Dagmar Krause. They made two studio albums with several guest musicians and disbanded in 1986.-History:...
, Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group from Cleveland, Ohio.Père Ubu may also refer to:* Ubu, the enigmatic central figure of a series of French plays by Alfred Jarry, including Ubu Roi, and subsequent plays Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné...
and (briefly) Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...
/Mothergong. He has collaborated with many musicians and groups, including Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
, Lindsay Cooper
Lindsay Cooper
Lindsay Cooper is an English bassoon and oboe player, composer and political activist. Best known for her work with the band Henry Cow, she was also a member of Comus, National Health, News from Babel and David Thomas and the Pedestrians...
, Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins is a harpist active in rock music, free improvisation and jazz. Parkins plays standard harps, as well as several custom-made one-of-a kind electric harps; she also plays piano and accordion...
, Peter Blegvad
Peter Blegvad
Peter Blegvad is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and cartoonist. He was a founding member of the avant-pop band Slapp Happy, which later merged briefly with Henry Cow, and has released many solo and collaborative albums...
and The Residents
The Residents
The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....
, and has appeared on over 100 recordings. Cutler's career spans over three decades and he still performs actively throughout the world.
Cutler created and runs the British independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Recommended Records
Recommended Records
Recommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
and is the editor of its sound-magazine, RēR Quarterly
ReR Quarterly
The RēR Quarterly was an English "quarterly" sound-magazine comprising an LP record and a magazine. It was published at irregular intervals between 1985 and 1997 by Recommended Records and November Books, and edited by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler...
. He has given a number of public lectures on music, published numerous articles and papers, and written a book on the political theory of contemporary music, File Under Popular
File Under Popular
File Under Popular: Theoretical and Critical Writings on Music is a collection of seven essays on the political theory of popular music written by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler. The essays were written between 1978 and 1983, four of them in response to requests...
(1984). Cutler also assembled and released The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set
The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set
The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set is a nine-CD plus one-DVD limited edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and was released by RēR Megacorp in January 2009. It consists of over 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings made between 1972 and 1978 from concerts, radio...
(2009), a collection of over 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings by the band.
Biography
Chris Cutler was born in January 1947 in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to a British foreign correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
and his Austrian wife. In 1948 the family moved to England where Cutler was brought up. He never studied music but tried his hand at banjo, guitar, trumpet and flute while at school. He finally settled for drums "because I wanted to be in a band and drummers were scarcest." Cutler formed his first band in 1963, playing Shadows
The Shadows
The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...
and Ventures
The Ventures
The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...
instrumental covers, then played in several R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
bands. In 1966 he joined a band called Louise which performed on the London psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
club circuit for three years before breaking up. Looking for work, Cutler placed a series of advertisements in Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
over a period of nine months in 1970. This put him in touch with a number of musicians which led to Cutler and keyboardist Dave Stewart of Egg
Egg (band)
Egg were an English progressive rock band formed in January 1969.-Career:The founding members of the group were Dave Stewart who played organ , Mont Campbell on bass and vocals and drummer Clive Brooks...
forming The Ottawa Music Company, a 26 piece rock composer's orchestra, in 1971. Soon afterwards, Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
, looking to replace the drummer who had just left them, responded to one of Cutler's adverts and invited him to a rehearsal.
Henry Cow
Henry Cow had been formed in 1968 by Cambridge UniversityUniversity of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
students Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
(guitar) and Tim Hodgkinson
Tim Hodgkinson
Tim Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds and keyboards. He is best known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968...
(woodwind and keyboards). By 1971 the band had gone through a number of personnel changes and it was only when Cutler joined them in September 1971 that the group stabilised. Frith, Hodgkinson and Cutler became Henry Cow's permanent core until the band split up in 1978.
Henry Cow's prominence in progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
circles launched the careers of many of its members, including Cutler's. Their music was uncompromising and this eventually put them at odds with the mainstream music business, forcing the band to do everything themselves: from recording, manufacturing and releasing their own albums, to organising their own tours and being their own management and agency. All this proved invaluable experience for Cutler that would assist him greatly in his future endeavours. The group spent most of its last three years touring Europe and many of Cutler's future collaborations resulted from contact made with musicians on these tours. In Henry Cow's last few months they initiated Rock in Opposition
Rock in Opposition
Rock in Opposition or RIO was a movement representing a collective of progressive bands in the late 1970s united in their opposition to the music industry that refused to recognise their music...
(RIO), a collective of like-minded bands they had encountered through Europe that were united in their opposition to the music industry.
Recommended Records
After Henry Cow disbanded in 1978, Cutler created Recommended RecordsRecommended Records
Recommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
in London, an independent label and distribution network for RIO artists. The record label quickly filled the gap left by commercial labels and soon began to also release non-RIO bands and musicians. Recommended Records's aim was to produce records of high technical and musical quality, placing the musicians' interests first and profits second. This strategy, however, led to the label experiencing financial difficulties from time to time, but it stuck to its principles and has survived for over 25 years. There are a number of musicians whose work would never have seen the light of day had it not been for Cutler's label.
Cutler also founded November Books in 1982, the publishing wing of Recommended Records.
Other bands and projects
Cutler's first post-Henry Cow project was Art BearsArt Bears
Art Bears were an English avant-rock group formed during the disassembly of Henry Cow in 1978 by three of its members, Chris Cutler , Fred Frith and Dagmar Krause...
(1978–1981), a group formed by Cutler, Fred Frith (guitar and keyboards) and Dagmar Krause
Dagmar Krause
Dagmar Krause is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-rock groups like Slapp Happy, Henry Cow and Art Bears. She is also noted for her coverage of songs by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler...
(vocals, from Henry Cow) six months before Henry Cow split up (see Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
for details). Art Bears were a song-oriented group that recorded three studio albums. Cutler's main contributions were the songs' texts and (with Frith) the album productions. Art Bears (in the wake of Henry Cow) were well received by critics which further boosted Cutler's reputation in "progressive" circles.
In 1982, Cutler co-founded the Anglo
Anglo
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
-German group Cassiber
Cassiber
Cassiber were a German avant-rock group founded in 1982 by German composer and saxophonist Alfred Harth, German composer, music-theatre director and keyboardist Heiner Goebbels, English drummer Chris Cutler from Henry Cow and German guitarist Christoph Anders...
(1982–1992) with German musicians Heiner Goebbels
Heiner Goebbels
Heiner Goebbels is a German composer, music director and professor at Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland....
, Alfred Harth
Alfred Harth
Alfred 23 Harth is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who mixes genres in a polystylistic manner...
and Christoph Anders. Over the next ten years Cassiber produced five albums and toured Europe, Asia, South and North America. Their music was very experimental and often involved spontaneously improvising pre-existing structured and arranged material.
News from Babel
News from Babel were an English avant-rock group founded in 1983 by Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, Zeena Parkins and Dagmar Krause. They made two studio albums with several guest musicians and disbanded in 1986.-History:...
(1983–1986), another song-orientated group with core members Cutler, Lindsay Cooper
Lindsay Cooper
Lindsay Cooper is an English bassoon and oboe player, composer and political activist. Best known for her work with the band Henry Cow, she was also a member of Comus, National Health, News from Babel and David Thomas and the Pedestrians...
(from Henry Cow), Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins is a harpist active in rock music, free improvisation and jazz. Parkins plays standard harps, as well as several custom-made one-of-a kind electric harps; she also plays piano and accordion...
(a United States harpist) and Dagmar Krause. With guest musicians (including Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
and Sally Potter
Sally Potter
Charlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter.-Career:Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Potter joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play...
) they made two critically acclaimed studio albums, but did not perform live.
Cutler was a member of the United States experimental rock band Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group from Cleveland, Ohio.Père Ubu may also refer to:* Ubu, the enigmatic central figure of a series of French plays by Alfred Jarry, including Ubu Roi, and subsequent plays Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné...
between 1987 and 1989. He had first encountered them in Washington DC in 1978 while exploring the possibility of Henry Cow touring America (which never materialised as Henry Cow disbanded soon after). Cutler kept in touch with Pere Ubu until they split in the early 1980s and their singer, David Thomas
David Thomas (musician)
David Lynn Thomas is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.He was one of the founding members of the short-lived protopunkers Rocket From The Tombs , where he went by the name of Crocus Behemoth, and of punk group Pere Ubu . He has also released several solo albums...
began a solo career. Cutler and Lindsay Cooper joined Thomas in 1982 to form David Thomas and the Pedestrians
David Thomas (musician)
David Lynn Thomas is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.He was one of the founding members of the short-lived protopunkers Rocket From The Tombs , where he went by the name of Crocus Behemoth, and of punk group Pere Ubu . He has also released several solo albums...
, and for the next three years they toured Europe and North America and made two albums. Over the next few years, some of the ex-Pere Ubu members began joining Thomas's Pedestrians. Cooper left in 1985 and by 1987 the group (now called David Thomas and the Wooden Birds
David Thomas (musician)
David Lynn Thomas is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.He was one of the founding members of the short-lived protopunkers Rocket From The Tombs , where he went by the name of Crocus Behemoth, and of punk group Pere Ubu . He has also released several solo albums...
) was effectively Pere Ubu again. As Pere Ubu, the band (with Cutler) made two albums. Cutler left in 1989.
In 1991, Cutler and German composer Lutz Glandien
Lutz Glandien
Lutz Glandien is a Berlin-based German avant garde composer and musician. He has composed a number of classical and electroacoustic pieces, released four solo albums, and collaborated with English percussionist Chris Cutler to record two acclaimed avant-rock albums, Domestic Stories and P53...
recorded the critically acclaimed song project Domestic Stories. Cutler wrote the song texts and played drums, while Glandien composed and performed the music with samplers and computers. The supporting musicians were Dagmar Krause (vocals), Fred Frith (bass and guitar) and Alfred Harth (saxophone and clarinet). Cutler collaborated with Glandien again in 1994 to record Scenes from no Marriage and to participate in P53
P53 (band)
P53, sometimes written p53, was an experimental music group commissioned by English percussionist Chris Cutler to play at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany in September 1994. Their performance was recorded and released by Recommended Records in 1996 on a live album entitled P53...
, a commission for the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival with Zygmunt Krauze
Zygmunt Krauze
- Biography :Polish composer and pianist , who studied composition and piano at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He is known as a composer of unistic music, based on the theory of unistic art adopted from the painting of Wladyslaw Strzeminski...
, Marie Goyette, Otomo Yoshihide
Yoshihide Otomo
is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist.He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the noise rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in a variety of contexts, ranging from free improvisation to noise, jazz, avant-garde and contemporary classical...
.
The (ec) Nudes were a band Cutler, Wädi Gysi (guitar) and Amy Denio
Amy Denio
Amy Denio is a Seattle -based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Often called an unclassifiable avant-garde jazz musician, she is also deeply inspired by world music. She is probably best known as a...
(vocals, bass, saxophone, accordion) formed in 1993. The trio recorded Vanishing Point, a CD of songs with texts by Cutler and music by Gysi and Denio, and toured all over Europe and visited Brasil. Bob Drake
Bob Drake (musician)
Bob Drake is an American multi-instrumentalist musician and recording engineer. He was a founding member of the avant-rock band Thinking Plague in the early 1980s, and a member of the 5uu's, Hail and The Science Group . He formed his own band, Bob Drake's Cabinet of Curiosities in 2007...
later joined the group on bass and as a quartet they toured all over Europe, Canada and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, but did not record. Cutler left the group in 1994.
Cutler and Yugoslav
Yugoslavs
Yugoslavs is a national designation used by a minority of South Slavs across the countries of the former Yugoslavia and in the diaspora...
keyboardist and composer Stevan Tickmayer formed The Science Group
The Science Group
The Science Group were an avant-rock group founded in France in 1997 by English drummer Chris Cutler from Henry Cow and Yugoslav contemporary classical composer and keyboardist Stevan Tickmayer...
in 1997 to record A Mere Coincidence (1999), an album of songs on science topics, including quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
. Cutler wrote the texts, Tickmayer composed the music, and the rest of the group comprised Bob Drake (bass guitar, vocals) and Claudio Puntin (bass clarinet), with guests Amy Denio (vocals) and Fred Frith (guitar). In 2003 Cutler and Tickmayer reconstituted The Science Group as a quartet with Bob Drake (bass guitar) and Mike Johnson
Mike Johnson (guitarist)
Mike Johnson is a United States experimental rock guitarist and composer, best known as the cofounder and member of the Denver-based avant-rock group Thinking Plague...
(guitars), and released an instrumental album, Spoors. In 1998, he joined John Wolf Brennan
John Wolf Brennan
John Wolf Brennan is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based out of Switzerland.Brennan's family moved to Switzerland when he was seven years old. He took piano lessons from age eleven, but played bass guitar in a rock band in 1970 before returning to keyboards in 1974 to...
's sextet "HeXtet" to record a series of poetry settings, from Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
to contemporary Irish poets like Theo Dorgan
Theo Dorgan
Theo Dorgan is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He currently lives in Dublin.- Career :Dorgan's poetry collections are The Ordinary House of Love ; Rosa Mundi; and Sappho’s Daughter...
and Paula Meehan
Paula Meehan
Paula Meehan is an Irish poet and playwright. Born in Dublin in 1955, Meehan studied at Trinity College, Dublin,and at Eastern Washington University.-Biography:...
, together with legendary singer Julie Tippetts
Julie Driscoll
Julie Tippetts is an English singer and actress, known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's "Season of the Witch", both with Brian Auger & The Trinity...
, saxophonist Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, trombonist Paul Rutherford
Paul Rutherford (trombone player)
Paul William Rutherford was an English free improvising trombonist.-Biography:Born in Greenwich, South East London, Rutherford initially played saxophone but switched to trombone...
and clarinetist Peter Whyman.
Other collaborations
The ex-Henry Cow members have always maintained close contact with each other and Cutler still collaborates with many of them. Cutler and Fred Frith have been touring Europe, Asia and the Americas since 1978 and have given over 100 duo performances. Four albums from some of these concerts have been released. In December 2006, Cutler, Frith and Tim Hodgkinson performed together at The Stone in New York City, only their second concert performance since Henry Cow's demise in 1978.On 4 November 2006 Cutler, Jon Rose
Jon Rose
Jon Rose is an Australian violinist born in the UK in 1951. Rose began playing violin at age 7 after winning a music scholarship to King's School in Rochester. For over 35 years, Rose has been at the sharp end of new, improvised, and experimental music and media...
(violin) and Zeena Parkins (harp) performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is a broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow, Scotland. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation , it is the oldest full-time professional orchestra in Scotland...
conducted by Ilan Volkov
Ilan Volkov
Ilan Volkov is an orchestral conductor. His father, Alexander Volkov, was a concert pianist of Ukrainian ancestry. His mother, Professor Shulamit Volkov of The School of Historical Studies in Tel Aviv University, is of German ancestry...
, at the Glasgow City Halls in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland. The concert was recorded and later broadcast by BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
on 24 March 2007.
Other musicians and bands Cutler has performed and recorded with over the years include Tim Hodgkinson, Lindsay Cooper, Peter Blegvad, John Greaves
John Greaves (musician)
John Greaves is a British bass guitarist and composer, best known as a member of Henry Cow and his collaborative albums with Peter Blegvad...
, René Lussier
René Lussier
René Lussier is a musician based in the province of Québec, Canada. He is a composer, guitarist, bass guitarist, percussionist, bass clarinetist and singer. Lussier has collaborated with such figures as Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Jean Derome and Robert M. Lepage...
, Jean Derome
Jean Derome
Jean Derome is a French Canadian avant-garde saxophonist, flautist and composer. A prominent figure in the Montreal musique actuelle scene, Derome has been a member of a number of experimental jazz and rock groups, and has appeared on over 30 albums, including seven solo albums...
, Tom Cora
Tom Cora
Thomas Henry Corra , better known as Tom Cora, was a United States cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock...
, Aksak Maboul
Aksak Maboul
Aksak Maboul were a Belgian avant-rock band founded in 1977 by Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis. They made two studio albums, Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine and Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits , the last one with ex-Henry Cow members Chris Cutler and Fred Frith...
, The Residents
The Residents
The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....
, The Work
The Work (band)
The Work were an English post-punk rock group, founded in 1980 by multi-instrumentalist/composer Tim Hodgkinson and guitarist/composer Bill Gilonis, with bass guitarist Mick Hobbs and drummer Rick Wilson. The band toured Europe in 1981 and 1982, and recorded their first album, Slow Crimes in 1982...
, Duck and Cover, Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar, Kalahari Surfers
Kalahari Surfers
The Kalahari Surfers is the moniker of South African composer and musician Warrick Sony. It began as a solo recording project in the early 1980s to subvert the total media and propaganda onslaught of P. W. Botha’s Apartheid South Africa...
, Hail
Hail (band)
Hail are an American indie/punk band with an avant-garde twist consisting of Susanne Lewis and Bob Drake . The band has also had guest appearances from Mike Johnson, Dave Kerman, Chris Cutler and Bill Gilonis. Albums include Gypsy Cat & Gypsy Bird , Turn of the Screw and Kirk...
, Biota
Biota (band)
Biota are an American avant-rock musical collective. They have released several albums. David Newgarden wrote, "Biota is not even remotely like any other group I can think of" in a review of their 1995 album, Object Holder.-Musical career:...
and Brainville 3
Brainville (band)
-External links:*...
.
In 2009, Cutler toured North America with avant-garde Czech violinist Iva Bittová
Iva Bittová
Iva Bittová is a Czech avant-garde violinist, singer and composer. She began her career as an actress in the mid 1970s, appearing in several Czech feature films, but switched to playing violin and singing in the early 1980s. She started recording in 1986 and by 1990 her unique vocal and...
.
Solo performances
Since the late 1990s, Cutler began giving solo electrified percussion performances to audiences across the world. His first was in Tokyo in June 1998, which was recorded in a documentary filmDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, At the Edge of Chaos, by award winning film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Shinji Aoyama. The first part of the film is equipment set-up and sound-checks, plus interviews with Cutler, while the second part is the improvised concert itself.
In 2001 Cutler released Solo: A Descent Into the Maelstrom, an album of solos on his electrified drum kit taken from live performances in Europe and the United States between August 2000 and May 2001. In 2005 he released Twice Around the World, an album of real-time recordings made from all over the world between 23.30 and midnight GMT. The material was taken from a daily half-hour radio programme Cutler ran for Resonance FM
Resonance FM
Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective .The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.Until September 2007, ResonanceFM...
: Out Of The Blue Radio between July 2001 and July 2002. A companion album, There and Back Again, comprising 44 environmental recordings, was released by Cutler in 2006.
Electrified drum kit
Chris Cutler never studied music and taught himself drumming on make-shift drum kits assembled with whatever was on hand. He slowly developed a technique using a "top-down" approach as opposed to the traditional "bottom-up" approach used by schooled drummers. Drummers are first taught basic patterns which are later combined into more complex patterns. Cutler learned the opposite way, hearing or imagining a sound and then disciplining his hands and feet to reproduce it. This "top-down" approach resulted in a unique style of drumming that pervades all of Cutler's performances and recordings.By the time Cutler was drumming for Henry Cow in 1971, he had become a perfectly competent, albeit unconventional, drummer. The nature of Henry Cow was to experiment and explore and it was here that Cutler developed and refined his drumming techniques. It was also here that he started to electrify his drum kit. He began by attaching old telephone mouthpieces to drums and cymbals, and connecting them to an amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
and a reverb
Reverberation
Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...
unit. He later added a small mixer
Mixing console
In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...
for four independent inputs. The effect was very basic: a few low-grade inputs with only equalisation and reverberation to manipulate.
By 1982, Cutler had added another small mixer, a pitch shift
Pitch shift
Pitch shifting is a sound recording technique in which the original pitch of a sound is raised or lowered. Effects units that raise or lower pitch by a pre-designated musical interval are called "pitch shifters" or "pitch benders".-Pitch/time shifting:...
er and a delay unit
Effects unit
Effects units are electronic devices that alter how a musical instrument or other audio source sounds. Some effects subtly "color" a sound, while others transform it dramatically. Effects are used during live performances or in the studio, typically with electric guitar, keyboard and bass...
. He had also begun using cheap guitar transducer
Transducer
A transducer is a device that converts one type of energy to another. Energy types include electrical, mechanical, electromagnetic , chemical, acoustic or thermal energy. While the term transducer commonly implies the use of a sensor/detector, any device which converts energy can be considered a...
s and a table full of additional wired objects (pans, metal trays, small tambours
Pandura
The pandura is an ancient Greek string instrument from the Mediterranean basin.It is derived from pandur, a Sumerian term for long-necked lutes...
and egg-slicers).
Cutler experimented briefly with drum pads triggered to play sampled
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
or synthesized
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
sounds, but quickly dismissed this option because he found them unresponsive and inflexible. They reduced a drum to nothing more than a switch: hit it and a pre-programmed sound is emitted, irrespective of how hard or in what manner the drum is struck. Cutler preferred real-time processing: amplifying and modifying actual sounds produced by the drum, making it a kind of an electroacoustic instrument, immediate and responsive, and retaining all the qualities of an acoustic drum kit.
Cutler went on to wire his entire drum kit, using a 16 channel mixer with multi-effect processors, a "Space pedal", a "Whammy pedal", a PDS 8000 and an old Boss pitch shifter/delay unit. In addition to transducers, he also attached miniature microphones to some of the drums and sticks. Cutler introduced feedback into the mix by placing a monitor speaker near the kit.
The electrified drum kit continues to evolve and to Cutler it is "satisfyingly unpredictable", responsive to all his old techniques while continuing to generate new ones. It has a unique "voice" that Cutler still has not plumbed the depths of. This is what prompted him to start giving solo performances because it tested his skill at playing an instrument he had to treat as an equal and evolve with.
Talks
In the early 1980s, Chris Cutler became active in the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and started giving talks and participating in symposia throughout the world. Some of the talks he has given are:- "Composing with Other People's Music – Creativity or Theft?", British Council, BelgradeBelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. - "Electrification and Experimentation, the Development of New Musical Resources in the Popular Field", Union of Composers, Moscow.
- "Improvisation: Motives and Methods", IASPM, University of LeedsUniversity of LeedsThe University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
. - "Rock In Opposition, a case study". Academy of Science, Berlin.
- "Studio Composition and Visualisation" – a case study IASPM, University, Montreal
- "Sonic and Structural Convergence at the fringes of Musical Genres". The Royal College of Art, London.
- "On The Impact of Recording Technology on Popular music." Pomeriggi Musicali do Milano.
- "Punderphonics and Postmodernism", Dissonanten, RotterdamRotterdamRotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
. - "Sampling and Plunderphonics", Museum School, BostonBostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. - "The Recording Studio as a Compositional Instrument", The Royal College of Art, London.
Essays
Cutler has written and published a number of essays on music, including:- "Necessity and Choice in Musical Forms: Concerning Musical and Technical Means and Political Needs" (1990) – an essay on the evolution of recorded music, published in The Cassette Mythos.
- "Plunderphonia" (1994) – an essay on plunderphonicsPlunderphonicsPlunderphonics is a term coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in his essay Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative. It has since been applied to any music made by taking one or more existing audio recordings and altering them in some way to make a new composition...
, published in Musicworks 60. - "Scale" (1997) – an essay on the scale of sounds in music, published in The Gramophone Special Edition "Perspectives on Contemporary Music".
- "Thoughts on Music and the Avant Garde" (2005) – an essay commissioned for a book dedicated to Professor Gunther Mayer, published in Perfect Sound Forever.
- "Locality" (2006) – published in Resonance Magazine.
- "The Road to Plunderphonia" (2011) – published by Quaderns d'àudio/Ràdio Web MACBA.
Books
Cutler has also published two books:- The Henry Cow Book (co-authored with Tim HodgkinsonTim HodgkinsonTim Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds and keyboards. He is best known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968...
) (1981) – a collection of documents and information about the band. - File Under PopularFile Under PopularFile Under Popular: Theoretical and Critical Writings on Music is a collection of seven essays on the political theory of popular music written by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler. The essays were written between 1978 and 1983, four of them in response to requests...
(1984) – a collection of theoretical and critical writings on music, also published in Polish, German and Japanese.
Discography
Here is a selection of albums Chris Cutler has performed on, showing the year they were first released:Bands and projects
With Henry CowHenry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
- Legend (1973, LP, Virgin RecordsVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, UK) - UnrestUnrest (Henry Cow album)Unrest is an album by British avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records's Manor studios in February and March 1974. It was their second album and was released in May 1974.The album was dedicated to Robert Wyatt and Uli Trepte...
(1974, LP, Virgin RecordsVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, UK) - Henry Cow ConcertsHenry Cow ConcertsHenry Cow Concerts is a live double album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at concerts in London, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway between September 1974 and October 1975...
(1976, 2xLP, Caroline RecordsCaroline RecordsCaroline Records started out as a subsidiary of Richard Branson's Virgin Records label during the early to mid 1970s. The label originally specialized in putting out budget price LPs by mainly progressive rock and jazz artists generally not considered to have a great deal of 'mainstream' or...
, UK) - Western CultureWestern Culture (album)Western Culture is an album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Sunrise Studios in Kirchberg, Switzerland in January, July and August 1978. It was their last album and was released on Henry Cow's own private label, Broadcast, in 1979. Later editions appeared on Interzone in the US...
(1979, LP, Broadcast, UK) - The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box SetThe 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box SetThe 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set is a nine-CD plus one-DVD limited edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and was released by RēR Megacorp in January 2009. It consists of over 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings made between 1972 and 1978 from concerts, radio...
(2009, 9xCD+DVD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
/Slapp Happy
Slapp Happy
Slapp Happy was a German/English avant-pop group consisting of Anthony Moore , Peter Blegvad and Dagmar Krause . The band formed in Germany in 1972. The band members moved to England in 1974 where they merged with Henry Cow, but the merger ended soon afterwards and Slapp Happy split up. Slapp...
- Desperate StraightsDesperate StraightsDesperate Straights is an album by British avant-rock groups Slapp Happy and Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in November 1974...
(1975, LP, Virgin RecordsVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, UK) - In Praise of LearningIn Praise of LearningIn Praise of Learning is an album by British avant-rock groups Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1975...
(1975, LP, Virgin RecordsVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, UK)
With Art Bears
Art Bears
Art Bears were an English avant-rock group formed during the disassembly of Henry Cow in 1978 by three of its members, Chris Cutler , Fred Frith and Dagmar Krause...
- Hopes and FearsHopes and Fears (Art Bears album)Hopes and Fears is the debut album by the English avant-rock group Art Bears. It comprises tracks by Henry Cow, Art Bears's predecessor, recorded at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg in Switzerland in January 1978, and tracks by Art Bears, recorded at Kaleidophon Studios in London in March...
(1978, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Winter Songs (1979, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - The World as It Is TodayThe World as it is TodayThe World as It Is Today is the third and last album by English avant-rock group Art Bears. It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland between 24 August and 7 September 1980, and was first released in 1981....
(1981, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Aksak Maboul
Aksak Maboul
Aksak Maboul were a Belgian avant-rock band founded in 1977 by Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis. They made two studio albums, Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine and Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits , the last one with ex-Henry Cow members Chris Cutler and Fred Frith...
- Un Peu de l'Âme des BanditsUn Peu de l'Âme des BanditsUn Peu de l'Âme des Bandits is the second album by Belgian avant-rock band Aksak Maboul. It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland in February and August 1979, and released on LP in January 1980 on founding member Marc Hollander's Belgian independent record label, Crammed Discs...
(1980, LP, Crammed DiscsCrammed DiscsCrammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released over 300 albums and 250 singles, working with artists from all over the world...
, Belgium)
With Cassiber
Cassiber
Cassiber were a German avant-rock group founded in 1982 by German composer and saxophonist Alfred Harth, German composer, music-theatre director and keyboardist Heiner Goebbels, English drummer Chris Cutler from Henry Cow and German guitarist Christoph Anders...
- Man or Monkey? (1982, 2xLP, Riskant, Germany)
- Beauty and the Beast (1984, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Perfect Worlds (1986, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - A Face We All Know (1990, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Live in Tokyo (1998, 2xCD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With The Work
The Work (band)
The Work were an English post-punk rock group, founded in 1980 by multi-instrumentalist/composer Tim Hodgkinson and guitarist/composer Bill Gilonis, with bass guitarist Mick Hobbs and drummer Rick Wilson. The band toured Europe in 1981 and 1982, and recorded their first album, Slow Crimes in 1982...
- Live in Japan (1982, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, Japan)
With Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
- Live in Prague and Washington, (1983, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Live in Trondheim, Berlin, Limoges (1994, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - 2 Gentlemen in Verona (2000, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - The Stone: Issue Two (2007, CD, Tzadik RecordsTzadik RecordsTzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases...
, US)
With Lindsay Cooper
Lindsay Cooper
Lindsay Cooper is an English bassoon and oboe player, composer and political activist. Best known for her work with the band Henry Cow, she was also a member of Comus, National Health, News from Babel and David Thomas and the Pedestrians...
, Bill Gilonis
Bill Gilonis
Bill Gilonis is an English guitarist and composer. He co-founded the gritty experimental rock group The Work in 1980 with Tim Hodgkinson...
, Tim Hodgkinson
Tim Hodgkinson
Tim Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds and keyboards. He is best known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968...
and Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
- The Last NightingaleThe Last NightingaleThe Last Nightingale is an album by various artists recorded and released in 1984 to raise money for striking coal miners in the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike. It features Chris Cutler, Tim Hodgkinson and Lindsay Cooper from the English avant-rock group Henry Cow, singer and musician Robert Wyatt,...
(1984, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With News from Babel
News from Babel
News from Babel were an English avant-rock group founded in 1983 by Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, Zeena Parkins and Dagmar Krause. They made two studio albums with several guest musicians and disbanded in 1986.-History:...
- Work Resumed on the TowerWork Resumed on the TowerWork Resumed on the Tower is a 1984 studio album by English avant-rock group News from Babel. It was recorded at Tim Hodgkinson's Cold Storage Recording Studios in Brixton, London, in October and November 1983, and released in 1984. It was their debut album and included guest vocalist Phil Minton...
(1984, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Letters Home (1986, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With David Thomas and the Pedestrians
David Thomas (musician)
David Lynn Thomas is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.He was one of the founding members of the short-lived protopunkers Rocket From The Tombs , where he went by the name of Crocus Behemoth, and of punk group Pere Ubu . He has also released several solo albums...
- Winter Comes HomeWinter Comes HomeWinter Comes Home was a live album credited to David Thomas and his Legs, released in 1982, in which Thomas was supported by Chris Cutler and Lindsay Cooper. Trouser Press reports that the album "mixes intellectual stand-up comedy with winning performances"...
(1983, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - More Places ForeverMore Places ForeverMore Places Forever is David Thomas' third solo album. The album was remixed from its original vinyl incarnation for inclusion on the 1997 David Thomas box set Monster...
(1985, LP, Rough Trade RecordsRough Trade RecordsRough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
, UK)
With Duck and Cover
- Re Records Quarterly Vol.1 No.2ReR QuarterlyThe RēR Quarterly was an English "quarterly" sound-magazine comprising an LP record and a magazine. It was published at irregular intervals between 1985 and 1997 by Recommended Records and November Books, and edited by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler...
(1985, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
UK)
Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar
- Tournée Mondiale/Été '89 (1987, LP, Ambiances MagnétiquesAmbiances MagnétiquesAmbiances Magnétiques is a non-profit, Canadian musical collective, which was formed in 1982 by a group of independent musicians and producers from Montreal. The entity was formed out of necessity: the avant-garde tastes of the members — which include jazz, classical, folk, and rock —...
, Canada) - Fin de Siècle (1989, LP, Ambiances MagnétiquesAmbiances MagnétiquesAmbiances Magnétiques is a non-profit, Canadian musical collective, which was formed in 1982 by a group of independent musicians and producers from Montreal. The entity was formed out of necessity: the avant-garde tastes of the members — which include jazz, classical, folk, and rock —...
, Canada)
With Peter Blegvad
Peter Blegvad
Peter Blegvad is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and cartoonist. He was a founding member of the avant-pop band Slapp Happy, which later merged briefly with Henry Cow, and has released many solo and collaborative albums...
- Downtime (1988, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Just Woke Up (1995, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Hangman's Hill (1998, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group from Cleveland, Ohio.Père Ubu may also refer to:* Ubu, the enigmatic central figure of a series of French plays by Alfred Jarry, including Ubu Roi, and subsequent plays Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné...
- The Tenement YearThe Tenement YearThe Tenement Year is Pere Ubu's first album after reuniting , and sixth overall. 'Classic lineup' members Tony Maimone and Allen Ravenstine, along with fellow Cleveland scenester Jim Jones and Henry Cow percussionist Chris Cutler found themselves playing with David Thomas for his 1987 album Blame...
(1988, LP, Fontana RecordsFontana RecordsFontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
) - CloudlandCloudland (album)Cloudland is Pere Ubu's seventh album. As indicated by the presence of Stephen Hague in the producer's chair, this album is among the most straightforwardly pop efforts in the Ubu canon. The album is rife with glossy surfaces and bubbly synth pads, but the poetic vision of David Thomas roots the...
(1989, LP, Fontana RecordsFontana RecordsFontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
)
With Hail
Hail (band)
Hail are an American indie/punk band with an avant-garde twist consisting of Susanne Lewis and Bob Drake . The band has also had guest appearances from Mike Johnson, Dave Kerman, Chris Cutler and Bill Gilonis. Albums include Gypsy Cat & Gypsy Bird , Turn of the Screw and Kirk...
- Kirk (1992, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Lutz Glandien
Lutz Glandien
Lutz Glandien is a Berlin-based German avant garde composer and musician. He has composed a number of classical and electroacoustic pieces, released four solo albums, and collaborated with English percussionist Chris Cutler to record two acclaimed avant-rock albums, Domestic Stories and P53...
- Domestic Stories (1993, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Scenes From No Marriage (1994, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With The (ec) Nudes
- Vanishing Point (1994, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With P53
P53 (band)
P53, sometimes written p53, was an experimental music group commissioned by English percussionist Chris Cutler to play at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany in September 1994. Their performance was recorded and released by Recommended Records in 1996 on a live album entitled P53...
- P53P53 (album)P53, sometimes written p53, is a 1996 live album by experimental music group P53. It was recorded at the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival in Germany on 16 September 1994, and was released in 1996 in the United Kingdom by Recommended Records....
(1996, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Biota
Biota (band)
Biota are an American avant-rock musical collective. They have released several albums. David Newgarden wrote, "Biota is not even remotely like any other group I can think of" in a review of their 1995 album, Object Holder.-Musical career:...
- Object Holder (1995, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins
Zeena Parkins is a harpist active in rock music, free improvisation and jazz. Parkins plays standard harps, as well as several custom-made one-of-a kind electric harps; she also plays piano and accordion...
- Shark! (1996, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With René Lussier
René Lussier
René Lussier is a musician based in the province of Québec, Canada. He is a composer, guitarist, bass guitarist, percussionist, bass clarinetist and singer. Lussier has collaborated with such figures as Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Jean Derome and Robert M. Lepage...
and Jean Derome
Jean Derome
Jean Derome is a French Canadian avant-garde saxophonist, flautist and composer. A prominent figure in the Montreal musique actuelle scene, Derome has been a member of a number of experimental jazz and rock groups, and has appeared on over 30 albums, including seven solo albums...
- Three Suite PieceThree Suite PieceThree Suite Piece is an album of music released by René Lussier, Chris Cutler and Jean Derome. The album was released on Cutler's Recommended Records label in 1996....
(1996, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With John Wolf Brennan
John Wolf Brennan
John Wolf Brennan is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based out of Switzerland.Brennan's family moved to Switzerland when he was seven years old. He took piano lessons from age eleven, but played bass guitar in a rock band in 1970 before returning to keyboards in 1974 to...
- HeXtet: Through the Ear of a Raindrop (1998, CD, Leo RecordsLeo RecordsLeo Records is an English jazz record label, which releases Russian jazz in addition to material from American and British musicians.Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin , a Russian immigrant to Britain...
, UK)
With Thomas Dimuzio
- Quake (1999, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With The Science Group
The Science Group
The Science Group were an avant-rock group founded in France in 1997 by English drummer Chris Cutler from Henry Cow and Yugoslav contemporary classical composer and keyboardist Stevan Tickmayer...
- A Mere Coincidence (1999, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - Spoors (2003, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Vril
- Effigies in Cork (2003, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK) - The Fatal Duckpond (2009, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Brainville 3
Brainville (band)
-External links:*...
- Trial by Headline (2008, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
With Thomas Dimuzio and Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
- Golden State (2010, LP, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
, UK)
Solo
- Solo: A Descent Into the Maelstrom (2001, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
) - Twice Around the World (2005, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
) - There and Back Again (2006, CD, Recommended RecordsRecommended RecordsRecommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
)
Films
- At the Edge of Chaos (2001, DVD) – 65 minute documentary by Shinji Aoyama on a Chris Cutler solo percussion concert in Tokyo, June 1998.
- Roulette TV Volume 8 (2003, DVD, Roulette) – live TV recording back-to-back with Shelley HirschShelley HirschShelley Hirsch is a singer, performer, and composer. Central to Hirsch's work are her versatile vocal abilities, which are often enmeshed in a kaleidoscope of electronic music and sound effects....
, March 2001.
External links
- Chris Cutler homepage.
- Chris Cutler biography. The Canterbury Website..
- "On Chris Cutler". Article by Patrick Wright published in The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, November 1995. - Perfect Sound Forever interview (03/1997)
- Interview (1998)
- Interview/Performance