John Zorn is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". His avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jazz, rock, Jewish music, hardcore, classical, contemporary, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and world music. Rolling Stone noted that "[alt]hough Zorn has operated almost entirely outside the mainstream, he's gradually asserted himself as one of the most influential musicians of our time".
Masada is a musical group with rotating personnel led by American saxophonist and composer John Zorn since the early 1990s.
Preston Lea "Trey" Spruance III is an American composer, producer, and musician who co-founded the experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. He is also leader of the multi-genre outfit Secret Chiefs 3. Originally a guitarist and trumpeter, in the early 90s Spruance began playing vintage electronic organs, analog synthesizers, saz, santur, electric sitar, tar, and various other string and percussion instruments. In the mid 90s he founded Forking Paths Studio where his production techniques were applied to Mr. Bungle and Secret Chiefs 3 records among many others. Since 2007 Spruance's Secret Chiefs 3 has been a very active live entity, performing well over 500 shows in more than 50 countries.
Wayne Horvitz is an American composer, keyboardist and record producer. He came to prominence in the Downtown scene of 1980s and '90s New York City, where he met his future wife, the singer, songwriter and pianist Robin Holcomb. He is noted for working with John Zorn's Naked City among others. Horvitz has since relocated to the Seattle, Washington area where he has several ongoing groups and has worked as an adjunct professor of composition at Cornish College of the Arts.
William Winant is an American percussionist.
Trevor Roy Dunn is an American composer, bass guitarist, and double bassist. He came to prominence in the 1990s with the experimental band Mr. Bungle. While performing with Mr. Bungle, Dunn would dress similar to the St. Pauli Girl. He has since worked in an array of musical styles, including with saxophonist/composer John Zorn, Secret Chiefs 3 and with his own avant-garde jazz/rock ensemble Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant. He is also a member of the band Tomahawk.
Estradasphere was an American experimental band that originated in Santa Cruz, California, during the late 1990s. The band, which in its last incarnation was based in Seattle, consisted of six multi-instrumentalists from a variety of musical backgrounds trained in disciplines ranging from classical music and jazz to heavy metal.
Secret Chiefs 3 is an American avant-garde group led by guitarist/composer Trey Spruance. Their studio recordings and tours have featured different lineups, as the group performs a wide range of musical styles, mostly instrumental, including surf rock, Persian, neo-Pythagorean, Indian, death metal, film music, and electronic music.
Kato Hideki is a Japanese musician and composer. He was a seminal member of the Tokyo Noise music scene of the late 80s and early 90s, collaborating with Japanese experimental musicians such as Otomo Yoshihide, Tatsuya Yoshida, Makigami Koichi, and Yamatsuka Eye. He led his own bands, Player Piano and Bass Army. He was a member of the original Ground Zero with Otomo and Uemura Masahiro. In 1992 Kato moved to New York City where he still resides.
Clinton "Bär" McKinnon is an American musician, perhaps best known for being a saxophonist in the San Francisco-based band Mr. Bungle.
Chris Brown is an American composer, pianist and electronic musician, who creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles. He was active early in his career as an inventor and builder of electroacoustic instruments; he has also performed widely as an improviser and pianist with groups as "Room" and the "Glenn Spearman Double Trio." In 1986 he co-founded the pioneering computer network music ensemble "The Hub". He is also known for his recorded performances of music by Henry Cowell, Luc Ferrari, and John Zorn. He has received commissions from the Berkeley Symphony, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, the Gerbode Foundation, the Phonos Foundation and the Creative Work Fund. His recent music includes the poly-rhythm installation "Talking Drum", the "Inventions" series for computers and interactive performers, and the radio performance "Transmissions" series, with composer Guillermo Galindo.
Michiyo Yagi, a Japanese musician who studied koto under Tadao Sawai, Kazue Sawai and Satomi Kurauchi, and graduated from the NHK Professional Training School for Traditional Musicians. Between 1989 and 1990, during her tenure as visiting professor of music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, U.S.A., she premiered numerous modern compositions for koto and came under the influence of maverick American composers such as John Cage, Conlon Nancarrow, and John Zorn. Her solo koto CD Shizuku was produced by Zorn and released on the Tzadik label in 1999. In 2001 she recorded "Yural" with her koto ensemble Paulownia Crush for the East Works label. Under the auspices of the Japan Foundation, Yagi toured Russia with this ensemble in the fall of 2004.
Jason Schimmel is an American composer, guitarist, musician, recording engineer and producer from Los Angeles, California. He is a founding member of the bands Estradasphere, Red Fiction, and Orange Tulip Conspiracy. He is an active member in Trey Spruance's Secret Chiefs 3. He has also performed with John Zorn's Masada, J.G. Thirlwell, Neil Hamburger, Amanda Palmer, Michael White, Eyvind Kang, Wayne Horvitz and Jason Webley.
Eyvindur Y. Kang is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. His primary instrument is viola, but has also performed on violin, tuba, keyboards and others.
Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9 is an album by the Secret Chiefs 3 performing compositions from John Zorn's second Masada book, "The Book of Angels". It is the fifth studio album to be released by the Secret Chiefs 3. As with the other volumes of the Book of Angels series, the titles of the songs are characters from Jewish and Christian mythology. The title of the album, Xaphan refers to one of the fallen angels who rebelled with Satan and set the Heaven on fire.
Masada Anniversary Edition Volume 3: The Unknown Masada is the third album in a series of five releases celebrating the 10th anniversary of John Zorn's Masada songbook project. It features twelve previously unreleased Masada compositions performed by Erik Friedlander's Quake (1), Rashanim (2), Dave Douglas (3), Tatsuya Yoshida (4), Naftule's Dream (5), Jamie Saft (6), Zahava Seewald (7), Koby Israelite (8), Julian Kytasty (9); Fantômas (10), Wadada Leo Smith and Ikue Mori (11), and Eyvind Kang (12).
Tzadik is a record label in New York City that specializes in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995. He is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases. Tzadik is a not-for-profit, cooperative record label.
Satellite Supersonic Vol. 1 is a compilation of Secret Chiefs 3 songs. All but one of the songs are by the Secret Chiefs 3's satellite bands UR, Ishraqiyun and Electromagnetic Azoth, making the album the third digital recording to feature such releases. Some of the songs were previously released as limited edition 7-inch singles, whereas others are previously unreleased tracks. The final piece is an unreleased rarity from the early years of the band, recorded in 1998. The previously released songs have seen "a full studio work-over" in 2010. Some of them feature newly recorded material.
Randall Dunn is an American record producer, audio engineer, composer, and musician.
Perichoresis is the debut studio album by Ishraqiyun and the eighth studio album by Secret Chiefs 3, released on October 21, 2014 by Web of Mimicry. The album comprises Afghani music influenced original compositions that utilize non-Western tunings and instrumentation that the band had previously performed in over forty countries. It is the second album in the band's discography to feature music entirely created by one of the satellite projects.
