Elliott Sharp - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Elliott Sharp is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Multi-instrumentalist

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, and performer.

A central figure in the avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

and experimental music

Experimental music

Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

scene in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

since the late 1970s, Sharp has released over eighty-five recording

Recording

Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, if an auditory medium, a recording....

s ranging from blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, and orchestral music

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

to noise

Noise music

Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...

, no wave

No Wave

No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...

rock, and techno music. He pioneered the use of a lap top computer in live performance with his Virtual Stance project of the 1980s. He has used algorithm

Algorithm

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...

s and fibonacci numbers in experimental composition since at least 1987. He has cited literature as an inspiration for his music and often favors improvisation. He is an inveterate performer, playing mainly guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

and bass clarinet

Bass clarinet

The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...

. Sharp has led many ensemble

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 over the years, including the blues

Blues

-oriented Terraplane and Orchestra Carbon.

Biography

Sharp was classically trained in piano from an early age, taking up clarinet and guitar as a teen. He attended Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

from 1969 to 1971, studying anthropology, music, and electronics. He completed his B.A. degree at Bard College

Bard College

Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...

in 1973, where he studied composition with Benjamin Boretz

Benjamin Boretz

Benjamin Boretz is an American composer and music theorist.-Life and work:Boretz was born in Brooklyn, New York and graduated with a degree in music from Brooklyn College...

and Elie Yarden; jazz composition, improvisation, and ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...

with trombonist Roswell Rudd

Roswell Rudd

Roswell Rudd is a Grammy Award-nominated American jazz trombonist and composer....

; and physics and electronics with Burton Brody. In 1977 he received an M.A. from the University at Buffalo

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, also commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university and a "University Center" in the State University of New York system. The university was founded by Millard Fillmore in 1846. UB has multiple campuses...

, where he studied composition with Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...

and Lejaren Hiller

Lejaren Hiller

Lejaren Arthur Hiller was an American composer. In 1957 he collaborated on the first significant computer music composition, Illiac Suite, with Leonard Issacson. It was his fourth string quartet. In 1958 he founded the Experimental Music Studio at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...

, and ethnomusicology with Charles Keil.

From the late '70s, Sharp established himself in New York's music scene. His compositions have been performed by the hr-Sinfonieorchester

HR-Sinfonieorchester

The hr-Sinfonieorchester is the radio orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk, the public broadcasting network of the German state of Hesse. Until 2005 it was the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, a name still used for international tours....

, the Ensemble Modern

Ensemble Modern

Ensemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries....

, Continuum, the Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble, Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...

, the FLUX Quartet

FLUX Quartet

The FLUX Quartet is an American string quartet dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1996 and is based in New York City. The group is renowned for its performances of Morton Feldman's String Quartet no...

, Zeitkratzer, the Soldier String Quartet, the JACK Quartet, and the Quintet of the Americas. His work has been featured at festivals worldwide, including the 2008 New Music Stockholm festival, the 2007 Hessischer Rundfunk Klangbiennale, and the Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

2003 and 2006. He releases music under his own label (zOaR music) as well as punk

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

label SST

SST Records

SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment...

and downtown music

Downtown music

Downtown music is a subdivision of American music, closely related to experimental music. The scene the term describes began in 1960, when Yoko Ono—one of the Fluxus artists, at that time still seven years away from meeting John Lennon—opened her loft at 112 Chambers Street to be used...

labels such as Knitting Factory

Knitting Factory

The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....

records and John Zorn

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

's Tzadik label. Guitar Player

Guitar Player

Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...

magazine's 30th anniversary issue included Sharp among their list of "The Dirty Thirty - Pioneers and Trailblazers".

He has collaborated regularly with many people, including Christian Marclay

Christian Marclay

Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...

, Eric Mingus, 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...

, Vernon Reid

Vernon Reid

Vernon Reid is an English-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...

, Bobby Previte

Bobby Previte

Robert "Bobby" Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader. Previte earned a B.A. in Economics at the University at Buffalo, where he also studied percussion. He moved to New York City in 1979, and became active in the city's thriving jazz and experimental music scenes...

, Joey Baron

Joey Baron

Joey Baron is an American avant-garde jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn, and John Zorn...

, David Torn

David Torn

David Torn is an American composer and guitarist.He is known for the organic blending/manipulation of electronic and acoustic instruments and performance techniques that have an atmospheric or textural quality and effect, along with a particular harmonic richness...

, Nels Cline

Nels Cline

Nels Cline is an American guitarist and composer, currently the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times describes Cline as "one of the best guitarists in any genre."-Career:...

, and Frances-Marie Uitti

Frances-Marie Uitti

Frances-Marie Uitti is composer and cellist known for her performances of the most esoteric and virtuoso contemporary classical music. She was born in Chicago to Finnish parents, and she studied classical music at Meadowmount with Ronald Leonard and Josef Gingold, Boston University with Leslie...

, as well as qawaali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, blues legend Hubert Sumlin

Hubert Sumlin

Hubert Sumlin is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer, best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing is characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic...

, actor/writer Eric Bogosian

Eric Bogosian

Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...

, jazz greats Jack DeJohnette

Jack DeJohnette

Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...

and Sonny Sharrock

Sonny Sharrock

Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock was an American jazz guitarist. He was once married to singer Linda Sharrock, with whom he sometimes recorded and performed....

, pop singer Debbie Harry

Debbie Harry

Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...

, and Bachir Attar

Bachir Attar

Bachir Attar is the leader of Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar. He is the son of Hadj Abdesalam Attar who led the group Master Musicians of Jajouka at the time of their groundbreaking album produced by Brian Jones.- Attar as the leader of The Master Musicians of Jajouka :Bachir...

, leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka. He was curator of the sound-art exhibition Volume: Bed of Sound for P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in 2001, which featured the works of 54 artists including Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci

Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...

, Tod Dockstader

Tod Dockstader

Tod Dockstader is an American composer of electronic music, and particularly musique concrète. He studied painting and film while at the University of Minnesota, before moving to Hollywood in 1955, to become an apprentice film editor...

, John Duncan

John Duncan (artist)

This page is about John Duncan the contemporary artist. For the Symbolist artist see John Duncan .John Duncan is an artist who has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam, currently lives and works in Bologna...

, Walter Murch

Walter Murch

Walter Scott Murch is an American film editor and sound designer.-Early life:Murch was born in New York City, New York, the son of Katharine and Canadian-born Walter Tandy Murch , a painter. He went to The Collegiate School, a private preparatory school in Manhattan, from 1949 to 1961...

, Muhal Richard Abrams

Muhal Richard Abrams

Muhal Richard Abrams is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Free jazz medium. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces.- Biography :Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago...

, Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson

Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...

, Chris & Cosey, Survival Research Laboratories

Survival Research Laboratories

Survival Research Laboratories is a machine performance art group credited for pioneering the genre of large-scale machine performance. After about 30 years in San Francisco, California, SRL spent most of 2008 moving to Petaluma, California....

, Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto

After working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, the group helped pioneer electronic genres such as...

, Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...

, and Butch Morris

Butch Morris

Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris is an American jazz cornetist, composer and conductor.-Biography:Before his musical career, Morris served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War....

. He also curates the State of the Union CD compilations of one-minute tracks by experimental musicians, and produces records for numerous artists. Sharp describes himself as a lifelong "science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

geek

Geek

The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...

" having modified and created musical instruments since his teen years, and frequently borrowing terms from science and technology for his compositions.

Sharp is the subject of Bert Shapiro's documentary Elliott Sharp: Doing the Don't, for Pheasant Eye Film. He was a 2009 Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts

Atlantic Center for the Arts

Atlantic Center for the Arts is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary artists’ community and arts education facility dedicated to promoting artistic excellence by providing talented artists an opportunity to work and collaborate with some of the world’s most distinguished contemporary artists in the...

, and a 2010 New York Foundation for the Arts

New York Foundation for the Arts

The New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...

Fellow in music. In 2003 he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Foundation for Contemporary Arts , originally known as Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City founded by artists Jasper Johns , John Cage, Elaine de Kooning and others in 1963. FCA offers financial support and recognition to contemporary...

Grants to Artists Award. In March 2011, Sharp's 60th birthday was celebrated with a weekend of all-star concert events hosted by Brooklyn's ISSUE Project Room

ISSUE Project Room

The ISSUE Project Room is a music venue in Brooklyn, New York founded in 2003 by Suzanne Fiol. Located in The Old American Can Factory in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, the venue supports a wide variety of contemporary performance, specializing in presenting experimental and avant-garde music...

.

Sharp lives in lower Manhattan with designer/video artist Janene Higgins

Janene Higgins

Janene Higgins is a graphic designer and video artist based in New York City. Her work spans several genres, from video performance in the experimental music scene to videos for Saks Fifth Avenue, and the design of several hundred CD packages for such record labels as Sony, BMG, PolyGram, and a...

and their two children.

Solo

Octal Book Two (2010)
Tectonics - Abstraction Distraction (2010)
Concert In Dachau (2008)
Octal Book One (2008)
Solo Beijing (2007)
Sharp? Monk? Sharp! Monk! (2006)
Quadrature (2005)
Velocity of Hue (2004)
Tectonics - Errata (1999)
Tectonics - Field and Stream (1997)
Sferics (1996)
Tectonics (1995)
Westwerk (1992)
K!L!A!V! (1990)
Looppool (1988)
Rhythms And Blues (1980)
Resonance (1979)

As a leader

War Zones (2008)
Radio Hyper-Yahoo (2004) with Tracie Morris
Tracie Morris
Tracie Morris is an American poet, performer, vocalist and academic originally from Brooklyn, New York.-Career:Morris emerged as a performer and writer from the Lower East Side poetry scene in the early 1990s. She became known as a local performer in the "slam" scene located in the Nuyorican Poets...

, Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...

, Sim Cain
Sim Cain
Sim Cain is an American drummer probably best known as a member of the hard rock group Rollins Band from 1987 to 2000...

, Maggie Estep
Maggie Estep
Maggie Estep is an American poet and writer. She has published six books and released two spoken word albums: Love is a Dog From Hell and No More Mr. Nice Girl.Estep was born in 1963 in Summit, New Jersey...

, Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...

, Lisa Lowell, Jack Womack
Jack Womack
Jack Womack is an American author of fiction and speculative fiction. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter, and works as a publicity manager for the Orbit and Yen imprints of Hachette Book Group USA....

, Eszter Balint
Eszter Balint
Eszter Balint is a singer, songwriter, violinist, and actress. She first emerged as a child member of the avant-garde Squat Theatre troupe before making her cinematic debut in 1984 in director Jim Jarmusch's independent film Stranger Than Paradise...

, Edwin Torres
Edwin Torres
Edwin Torres may refer to:* Edwin Torres , Puerto Rican New York Supreme Court judge and author of crime novels including Carlito's Way* Edwin Torres , Puerto Rican "Nuyorican Movement" poet...

, Eric Mingus, Steve Piccolo, Gak Sato
Raw Meet (2002) with Melvin Gibbs
Melvin Gibbs
Melvin Gibbs is an American bass guitarist, composer, and producer who has appeared on close to 200 albums in diverse genres of music. Gibbs has been called "the best bassist in the world" by Time Out New York magazine....

, Lance Carter
Autar (2000) with the Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...

Musicians of Muhammad Abu-Ajaj
Arc 3: Cyberpunk & the Virtual Stance (1998)
Arc 2: The Seventies (1998) with, Steve Piccolo, Geoff MacAdie, Stewart Gilbert, Kunda Magenau, Denis Williamson, Murry Kohn, Donald Knaack
Donald Knaack
Donald Knaack is an American percussionist. He currently performs-on and composes-for recycled materials exclusively.His album Junk Music was nominated for a Grammy award and he has played in many prominent venues worldwide, including Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Vans Warped Tour, The...

, Bobby Previte
Bobby Previte
Robert "Bobby" Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader. Previte earned a B.A. in Economics at the University at Buffalo, where he also studied percussion. He moved to New York City in 1979, and became active in the city's thriving jazz and experimental music scenes...

, Jim Whittemore, Chris Vine

Arc 1: I/S/M (1996) with Art Baron
Art Baron
Art Baron is an American jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, conch shell, penny-whistle, alto and bass recorder, and tuba.Baron is an alumnus of the Berklee College of Music...

, Michael Brown, Al Diaz, Olu Dara
Olu Dara
Olu Dara Jones is an American cornetist, guitarist and singer.-History:...

, Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....

, David Linton, Diana Meckley, M.E. Miller, Charles K. Noyes, Bobby Previte
Bobby Previte
Robert "Bobby" Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader. Previte earned a B.A. in Economics at the University at Buffalo, where he also studied percussion. He moved to New York City in 1979, and became active in the city's thriving jazz and experimental music scenes...

, Philip Wilson
Boodlers - Counter Fit (1997) with Fred Chalenor, Henry Franzoni, Joseph Trump
Boodlers (1995) with Fred Chalenor, Henry Franzoni
Dyners Club guitar quartet (1994) with Roger Kleier
Roger Kleier
Roger Kleier is an American composer, guitarist, improviser, and producer.He studied composition at the University of North Texas College of Music and the USC Thornton School of Music. Kleier's compositional work typically develops an expanded vocabulary for the electric guitar through the use of...

, David Mecionis, John Myers
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Yahoos (1992) with Samm Bennett
Samm Bennett
Samm Bennett , is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.Samm Bennett is a singer and songwriter, a drummer and percussionist, and a player of string instruments such as the stick dulcimer and the diddley bow...

, Alva Rogers, Anthony Coleman
Anthony Coleman
Anthony Coleman is an American musician. Coleman is a piano and keys player, trombonist and vocalist mainly working within the free improvised and avant-garde jazz scenes in downtown New York during the late 1970s through to the present day.His greatest impact was during the 80s and 90s when he...

, Victor Poison-Tete, Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne is an American improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz. He has also been a reviewer for Allmusic and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll.Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but...

, Sussan Deihim, Shelley Hirsch
Shelley Hirsch
Shelley 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....

, Barbara Barg
Barbara Barg
Barbara Barg is a poet, writer, and musician.Barg was born in Memphis and raised in Forrest City, Arkansas. After studying with poet Ted Berrigan at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, she moved to New York City and became involved in a number of individual and collaborative projects...

, K.J. Grant, Lee Ann Brown
In The Land of the Yahoos (1987) with Christoph Anders, Sussan Deihim, Elizabeth Fischer, David Fulton, Paul Garrin
Paul Garrin
Paul Garrin, , is best known as a politically active video artist from the 1990s. His most famous work is Man with a Video Camera , 1989, in which he videotapes a riot in Tompkins Square Park in New York City's Lower East Side...

, Shelley Hirsch
Shelley Hirsch
Shelley 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....

, Shigeto Kamada, Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...

, Jane Tomkiewicz
I/S/M:R (1982) with Michael Brown, Al Diaz, David Linton
Nots (1981) with Art Baron
Art Baron
Art Baron is an American jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, conch shell, penny-whistle, alto and bass recorder, and tuba.Baron is an alumnus of the Berklee College of Music...

, Olu Dara
Olu Dara
Olu Dara Jones is an American cornetist, guitarist and singer.-History:...

, Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....

, Diana Meckley, M.E. Miller, Charles K. Noyes, Philip Wilson

with Carbon

Void Coordinates (2010)
Serrate (2009)
Interference (1995)
Amusia (1994)
Autoboot (1994)
Truthtable (1993)
Tocsin (1991)
Sili/contemp/tation (1990)
Datacide (1989)
Monster Curve (1982)

with Orchestra Carbon

Radiolaria (2001)
SyndaKit (1999)
Rheo~Umbra (1998)
Spring & Neap (1997)
Abstract Repressionism: 1990-99 (1992)
Larynx (1988, 2007)

String Quartets

Elliott Sharp String Quartets 2002-2007 (2008) with The Sirius String Quartet
Elliott Sharp String Quartets 1986-1996 (2003) with Soldier String Quartet and The Meridian Quartet
A Modicum of Passion (2004) with (vocals) Devorah Day, Ben Miller, Eric Mingus, Joan Wasser
Joan Wasser
Joan Wasser is a violinist and singer/songwriter in the indie rock world. She began her career playing violin with the Dambuilders. She has released three albums as a singer songwriter, the 2006 Real Life the 2008 To Survive and the 2011 The Deep Field...

; and (strings) Stephanie Griffin, Conrad Harris, Amy Kimball, Garo Yellin
XenocodeX (1996) with Soldier String Quartet
Cryptid Fragments (1993) with Margaret Parkins, Michelle Kinney, Sara Parkins, and Soldier String Quartet
Twistmap (1991) with Soldier String Quartet
Hammer, Anvil, Stirrup (1987) with Soldier String Quartet and Carbon

with Terraplane

Terraplane - Forgery (2008)
Terraplane - Secret Life (2005)
Terraplane - Do the Don't (2003)
Terraplane - Music For Yellowman (2002)
Terraplane - Blues for Next (2000)
Terraplane (1994)

Duos

Reflexions (2010) with Michiyo Yagi
Michiyo Yagi
, a Japanese musician, studied koto under the late Tadao Sawai, Kazue Sawai and Satomi Kurauchi, and graduated from the NHK Professional Training School for Traditional Musicians. Between 1989 and 1990 she was a visiting professor of Music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, U.S.A...
Afiadacampos (2010) with Scott Fields
Scott Fields
Scott Fields , is a guitarist, composer and band leader. He is best known for his attempts to blend music that is composed and music that is written and for his modular pieces...
Protoplasmic (2009) with Boris Savoldelli
Scharfefelder (2008) with Scott Fields
Scott Fields
Scott Fields , is a guitarist, composer and band leader. He is best known for his attempts to blend music that is composed and music that is written and for his modular pieces...
BASE (2008) with Antoine Berthaume
pi:k (2007) with Charlotte Hug
Duo Milano (2007) with Nels Cline
Nels Cline
Nels Cline is an American guitarist and composer, currently the lead guitarist of alternative rock band Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times describes Cline as "one of the best guitarists in any genre."-Career:...
Hums 2 Terre (2007) with Franck Vigroux
Franck Vigroux
Franck Vigroux is a French avant garde musician, turntablist, guitarist operating on the borders of rock, electronic, jazz and contemporary art music. He wrote a trilogy "Triste Lilas" with Helene Breschand, Marc Ducret, Bruno Chevillon, Michel Blanc...
Feuchtify (2006) with Reinhold Friedl
Tranz (2006) with Merzbow
Merzbow
is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic...
Volcanic Island (2005) with Yasuhiro Usui
Tongue (2004) with John Duncan
John Duncan (artist)
This page is about John Duncan the contemporary artist. For the Symbolist artist see John Duncan .John Duncan is an artist who has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam, currently lives and works in Bologna...
The Prisoner's Dilemma (2002) with Bobby Previte
Bobby Previte
Robert "Bobby" Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader. Previte earned a B.A. in Economics at the University at Buffalo, where he also studied percussion. He moved to New York City in 1979, and became active in the city's thriving jazz and experimental music scenes...
Anostalgia (2002) with Reinhold Friedl
High Noon (1999) with Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
Rwong Territory (1998) with DJ Soulslinger
Poverty Line (1997) with Ronny Someck
Ronny Someck
Ronny Someck is an Israeli poet and author, whose works have been translated into many languages.-Biography:Someck was born in Baghdad and came to Israel as a young child. He studied Hebrew literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and drawing at the Avni Academy of Art...
Revenge of the Stuttering Child (1997) with Ronny Someck
Ronny Someck
Ronny Someck is an Israeli poet and author, whose works have been translated into many languages.-Biography:Someck was born in Baghdad and came to Israel as a young child. He studied Hebrew literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and drawing at the Avni Academy of Art...
Improvisations (1997) with Frances-Marie Uitti
Frances-Marie Uitti
Frances-Marie Uitti is composer and cellist known for her performances of the most esoteric and virtuoso contemporary classical music. She was born in Chicago to Finnish parents, and she studied classical music at Meadowmount with Ronald Leonard and Josef Gingold, Boston University with Leslie...
Hoosegow: Mighty (1996) with Queen Esther
Psycho~Acoustic - Blackburst (1996) 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...
Psycho~Acoustic (1994) 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...
In New York (1990) with Bachir Attar
Bachir Attar
Bachir Attar is the leader of Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar. He is the son of Hadj Abdesalam Attar who led the group Master Musicians of Jajouka at the time of their groundbreaking album produced by Brian Jones.- Attar as the leader of The Master Musicians of Jajouka :Bachir...

Collaborative groups

venice, dal vivo (2010) Elliott Sharp, Joey Baron
Joey Baron
Joey Baron is an American avant-garde jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn, and John Zorn...

, Franck Vigroux
Franck Vigroux
Franck Vigroux is a French avant garde musician, turntablist, guitarist operating on the borders of rock, electronic, jazz and contemporary art music. He wrote a trilogy "Triste Lilas" with Helene Breschand, Marc Ducret, Bruno Chevillon, Michel Blanc...

, Bruno Chevillon
TECK String 4tet (2007) Carlos Zingaro
Carlos Zingaro
Carlos Zíngaro is a Portuguese violinist and electronic musician active in free improvisation....

, Elliott Sharp, Ken Filiano
Ken Filiano
Kenneth S. Filiano is an American jazz double bassist. He is associated with the modern free improvisational scene....

, Tomas Ulrich
In the Tank (2006) Natsuki Tamura, Elliott Sharp, Takayuki Kato, Satoko Fujii
Satoko Fujii
is a Japanese avant-garde jazz pianist and composer. Fujii started playing the piano at age 4, receiving classical training until she was 20, when she became interested in improvisation and jazz....
Beyond (2001) Joey Baron
Joey Baron
Joey Baron is an American avant-garde jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn, and John Zorn...

, Elliott Sharp, Roberto Zorzi
GTR OBLQ (1998) Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid is an English-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...

, Elliott Sharp, David Torn
David Torn
David Torn is an American composer and guitarist.He is known for the organic blending/manipulation of electronic and acoustic instruments and performance techniques that have an atmospheric or textural quality and effect, along with a particular harmonic richness...
Downtown Lullaby (1998) John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

, Wayne Horvitz
Wayne Horvitz
Wayne Horvitz is an American composer, keyboardist and record producer.-Biography:Horvitz, a "defiant cross-breeder of genres", has led the groups The President, Pigpen, Zony Mash, and the Four Plus One Ensemble...

, Elliott Sharp, Bobby Previte
Bobby Previte
Robert "Bobby" Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader. Previte earned a B.A. in Economics at the University at Buffalo, where he also studied percussion. He moved to New York City in 1979, and became active in the city's thriving jazz and experimental music scenes...
Bootstrappers - GI=GO (1992) Elliott Sharp, Thom Kotik, Jan Kotik
Jan Kotík
Jan Jakub Kotík was a Czech artist and rock drummer.- Life :Jan Jakub was the son of composer Petr Kotík and curator of contemporary art Charlotta Kotík, who emigrated to the USA in 1970. Jan was a musician and visual artist...
Bootstrappers (1989) George Hurley
George Hurley
George Hurley is a drummer noted for his work with The Minutemen and fIREHOSE.Even though he went to the same high school as D. Boon and Mike Watt he did not meet them until around 1978. That same year, Hurley formed The Reactionaries with Boon, Watt, and Martin Tamburovich...

, Mike Watt
Mike Watt
Michael David Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter.He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and Firehose; , he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen...

, Elliott Sharp
Semantics - Bone of Contention (1987) Elliott Sharp, Ned Rothenberg
Ned Rothenberg
Ned Rothenberg is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer. He specializes in woodwind instruments, including the alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and shakuhachi...

, Samm Bennett
Samm Bennett
Samm Bennett , is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.Samm Bennett is a singer and songwriter, a drummer and percussionist, and a player of string instruments such as the stick dulcimer and the diddley bow...

As producer

Binibon (radio play, produced and directed) (Henceforth 2010)
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...

: Graffiti Composition (Dog W/A Bone 2010)
PAK: 100% Human Hair (Ra Sounds 2007)
The Frigg: Frigg: Brecht (Knitting Factory
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....

1999)
Kazamaki/Laar: Return to Street Level (Ear-Rational 1990)
Mofungo: Work (SST
SST Records
SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment...

1989)
N.A.D + Sonny Sharrock
Sonny Sharrock
Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock was an American jazz guitarist. He was once married to singer Linda Sharrock, with whom he sometimes recorded and performed....

, Denardo Coleman
Denardo Coleman
Denardo Ornette Coleman is an American jazz drummer. He is the son of Ornette Coleman and Jayne Cortez.Denardo Coleman began playing drums at age six; his first appearance on record was on his father's 1966 album The Empty Foxhole; Ornette later featured Denardo on many of his releases, and he...

, Henry Kaiser
Henry Kaiser (musician)
Henry Kaiser is an American guitarist and composer.Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "first generation" of American free improvisers.-Biography:His grandfather was the...

, Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...

, 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...

: Ghosts (Heron 1989)
Mofungo: Bugged (SST 1988)
John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

: Spy Vs Spy (Nonesuch
Nonesuch
The word nonesuch means something with nothing like it; an unrivalled thing; a paragon. Nonesuch can also refer to the following:*Nonesuch Press*Nonesuch Records*Nonesuch River*Nonesuch River Golf Course...

1988)

As a compilation producer

I Never Met a Guitar (Clean Feed, 2010)
Secular Steel (Gaff Music, 2004)
Timebomb: Live at the Clocktower Gallery (P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 1997)
State Of The Union 2.001 (Electronic Music Foundation, 2001)
State Of The Union (Atavistic, 1996)
State Of The Union (MuWorks, 1993)
Real Estate (Ear-Rational, 1990)
Island of Sanity (No Man's Land, 1987)
State Of The Union (zOaR, 1992)
Peripheral Vision (zOaR, 1982)

Recorded film scores and score compilations

Spectropia Suite (2010) Score to the sci-fi feature film by Toni Dove
Toni Dove
Toni Dove is a New York-based artist working primarily in electronic and interactive media. She is considered one of the pioneers of interactive cinema , and has shown work at ZKM, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Brooklyn Anchorage, and the Whitney Museum of American Art...

performed by the 31 Band, Sirius String Quartet, and special guest Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
Q-Mix (2009)
Soundtrack for the film What Sebastian Dreamt (2005)
Soundtrack for the film Commune (2005)
Suspension of Disbelief (compilation) (2001)
Figure Ground (compilation) (1997)

Film appearances

Elliott Sharp: Doing the Don't (2008 DVD documentary)
The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (2007 DVD)
Elliott Sharp: The Velocity of Hue. Live in Cologne (2007 DVD)
April in New York with Bobby Previte
Bobby Previte
Robert "Bobby" Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader. Previte earned a B.A. in Economics at the University at Buffalo, where he also studied percussion. He moved to New York City in 1979, and became active in the city's thriving jazz and experimental music scenes...

(2007 DVD)
Roulette TV: Elliott Sharp. Roulette Intermedium Inc. (2000 DVD)
Record Player: Christian Marclay (2000 DVD)

Music composed for film

Spectropia (2006)
Commune
Commune (documentary)
Commune is a 2005 documentary film by Jonathan Berman. The film is about an intentional community located in Siskiyou County, California called Black Bear Ranch and features narration by Peter Coyote who himself once resided at Black Bear.-Reception:...

(2005)
The Time We Killed (2004)
What Sebastian Dreamt (2003)
Daddy and the Muscle Academy (1991)
Antigone/Rites of Passion (1990)
The Salt Mines (1990)

Installations

Suspension (2004): 2-channel installation of video and sound exploring the awareness of momentary stillness in the metropolis. Collaboration with video artist Janene Higgins, for The Chelsea Art Museum
Chelsea Art Museum
The Chelsea Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located at 556 West 22nd Street on the corner of Eleventh Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City....

, NYC.
Fluvial (2002): A system for flowing audio to create moving sound currents within the enclosed space of the Engine 27 gallery in NYC, Fluvial uses randomization, filtering, and feedback as its basic processing elements to make full use of the room's spatialization potential.
Chromatine (2001): Both musical instrument and sculpture, encouraging visitors to touch the sculpture and cause it to play music. For the Gallery of the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...

.
Tag (1997): An interactive audio installation created for the Departure Lounge exhibition at the Clocktower Gallery of P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
MoMA PS1 is one of the largest and oldest institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art. It is located in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City...

, New York City.
Distressed Vivaldi (1996): Soundtrack created for the Model Home exhibition at the Clocktower Gallery of P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York City.

External links

Elliott Sharp official site
Trailer for Elliott Sharp: Doing the Don't, documentary
Trailer for Elliott Sharp: The Velocity of Hue. Live in Cologne, concert film
Janene Higgins & Elliott Sharp, Chelsea Art Museum, concert excerpt
Elliott Sharp at IMDB,