"An experimental composer and multi-instrumentalist with
startling technical gifts" - Muze
"His music draws upon the wide range of his influences, from Coltrane
to Zappa to Xennakis and beyond" - AllMusic Guide
To call Elliott Sharp versatile is an understatement. A fixture
on the downtown New York music scene since that late '70's, he
moves seamlessly from acoustic blues to orchestral to film scores
to everything in between. E# is equally gifted on guitar, clarinets,
and tenor sax and, aside from his own huge body of work, has collaborated
with blues legend Hubert Sumlin, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, jazz greats
Jack deJohnette and Sonny Sharrock, Germany's Ensemble Modern,
Pere Ubu, Marc Ribot, Bachir Attar (leader of the Master Musicians
of Jahjouka), and many others.
Gaff Music is proud, as well we should be, to be launching
a series of releases with Elliott Sharp, starting with two on
March 23. Elliott Sharp's Terraplane - Do The Don't is
real blues. AllMusic Guide said of Blues For Next, their
previous release, "it's all about feeling, and Sharp's got
that. This recording is a lot closer to the real spirit of the
blues than a truckload of teenage Stevie Ray Vaughan wannabe's".
They're right. And Do The Don't brings more of that and
then some. Featuring Hubert Sumlin on guitar and Eric Mingus and
Dean Bowman on vocals, it's the blues as they're supposed to be
played, filtered through E#'s unique vision.
The same day Gaff will be releasing Secular Steel, a piece made
up of 16 tracks by 16 different artists playing steel and
pedal steel guitar. Secular Steel was produced by E# and includes
tracks by Henry Kaiser, David Toop, Eugene Chadbourne, Nels Cline,
Lucky Oceans, Stephen Ulrich/Big Lazy, Andy Marshall, Mike Cooper,
Susan Alcorn, Roger Kleier, Joe Goldmark, Bob Hoffnar, Bruce Kaphan,
Mark Dagley, and E# himself.
Both totally unique releases from a unique artist.
Bio:
Composer/multi-instrumentalist/producer Elliott Sharp leads
the groups Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics, and Terraplane.
His compositions have been performed by the Symphony of the
Hessischer Rundfunk, the Ensemble Modern, Continuum, Kronos
Quartet, and Zeitkratzer. His collaborators have included
qawaali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, playwright Dael Orlandersmith,
cello innovator Frances-Marie Uitti, sci-fi writers Jack Womack
and Lucius Shepard; blues legend Hubert Sumlin; turntablists
DJ Soulslinger and Christian Marclay; and Bachir Attar, leader
of the Master Musicians of Jahjoukah. His orchestra
piece "Calling" was commissioned by the Hessischer
Rundfunk to open the 2002 Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik.
He has recently completed the score to the feature-film Lo Que
Soño Sebastien by Guatemalan writer and director Rodrigo
Rey-Rosa which will be featured at Sundance film Festival in
January 2004. Sharp was also composer and music director
for the Al-Mashreq All-Stars, a collaborative project
with various Arab and American musicians at the Lincoln Center
Summer Festival in July 2002. His piece "Quarks
Swim Free" performed by his group Carbon was premiered
at the Venice Biennale in September 2003.
Discography:
Sharp's most recent CD releases include the solo acoustic guitar
CD The Velocity Of Hue, the new Orchestra Carbon album
Radiolaria, and the latest Tectonics cd Errata.
He founded zOaR Records in 1978 both for his own productions
including the critically-acclaimed compilations Peripheral
Vision and State Of The Union and for other radical
music. The complete discography may be found at:
http://home.arcor.de/nyds-exp-discogs/index0.htm
Installations:
Fluvial, computerized audio work commissioned by Engine
27 gallery, June '02. Chromatine , an interactive string sculpture/audio
work created for the Gallery of the School of Museum Of Fine
Art, Boston, January 2001. Cryptid Fragments included in the Bitstreams show at
the Whitney Museum, 2001.
Sound design and music for Timetable, interactive installation
by Perry Hoberman - July 1999. Won Grand Prize at Tokyo
NTT ICC Biennale, 1999.
Soundtrack for Sequences by sculptor Antoine Laval,
Dec. '97
Soundtrack for Prey, a video installation by Janene
Higgins, May '97 Tag, an interactive audio work for "Departure
Lounge" at Clocktower Gallery - Mar '97 Distressed Vivaldi, for "Model Home"
at Clocktower Gallery - Oct '96
