Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo remained together for the entire history of the band, while Steve Shelley (drums) followed a series of short-term drummers in 1985, rounding out the core line-up. Jim O'Rourke was also a member of the band from 1999 to 2005.
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moore was ranked 34th in Rolling Stone's 2004 edition of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." In May 2012, Spin published a staff-selected list of the top 100 rock guitarists, and ranked Moore and his Sonic Youth bandmate Lee Ranaldo together at number 1.
Lee Mark Ranaldo is an American musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist, writer, visual artist and record producer, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list. In May 2012, Spin published a staff-selected top 100 guitarist list, ranking Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore together at number 1.
Jim O'Rourke is an American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene. Around 2000, he relocated to New York City before moving to Japan, where he currently resides. O’Rourke is best known for his numerous solo and collaborative projects, many of which are entirely instrumental, and for his tenure as a member of Sonic Youth from 1999 to 2005. He has released albums across varied genres, including singer-songwriter music, post-rock, ambient, noise music, and tape experiments.
Ikue Mori, also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer, electronic musician, composer, and graphic designer.
Steven Jay Shelley is an American drummer. He is best known as a member of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth.
Yuka Honda is a Japanese-American musician who resides in New York City. She is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and co-founder of the band Cibo Matto. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with a diverse array of musicians, including Petra Haden, Sean Lennon, Mike Watt, Nels Cline, Tricky, Harper Simon, Beastie Boys, Los Lobos, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, Mitchell Froom, Medeski Martin & Wood, Marc Ribot, Yoshimi P-We, Arto Lindsay, Edie Brickell, Vincent Gallo, Luscious Jackson, Dave Douglas, Bernie Worrell, and Caetano Veloso.
Zeena Parkins is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp". Parkins performs on standard harps, several custom electric harps, piano, and accordion. She is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and professor in the Music Department at Mills College.
Nels Courtney Cline is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004.
William Winant is an American percussionist.
SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century is an album by American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. It is a double album of versions of pieces by avant-garde composers, performed by Sonic Youth and collaborators.
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.
Loren Mazzacane Connors is an American experimental musician who has recorded and performed under several different names: Guitar Roberts, Loren Mazzacane, Loren Mattei, and currently Loren Connors. He has worked with Alan Licht, Jim O'Rourke, bassist Darin Gray, Thurston Moore, John Fahey, Keiji Haino, Jandek, Suzanne Langille, poet Steve Dalachinsky, Chan Marshall, Margarida Garcia, Kath Bloom and Robert Crotty.
Chris Corsano is a drummer from New England, United States. He often performs in an improvisation duo with saxophonist Paul Flaherty. He has also recorded material with artists such as Evan Parker, Dredd Foole, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Six Organs of Admittance, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Matt Valentine, Nels Cline, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Cold Bleak Heat, Jim O'Rourke, Jandek, Michael Flower, Bill Orcutt, and C. Spencer Yeh as well releasing numerous solo recordings.
The Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville is an annual international music festival held in Victoriaville, Quebec that showcases contemporary music.
Gregory E. Stinson, better known as G. E. Stinson, is an American guitarist and founding member of new age/electronic musical group Shadowfax. Inspired by blues masters such as Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters, Stinson experimented with blues, jazz and other musical genres before co-founding Shadowfax in 1974. He remained with the band for six albums. He departed Shadowfax after recording The Odd Get Even (1989), entering the Los Angeles underground music community to refine his 'extended technique' and 'frequency manipulation'. Since then he has worked with a number of musicians on various projects, including Napalm Quartet, Splinter Group, Stinkbug, Metalworkers, Alex De Grassi, Devin Sarno and others. In 2000, he collaborated with drummer Gregg Bendian, violinist Jeff Gauthier, and bassist Steuart Liebig on an album of collective improvisational pieces recorded live in the studio, entitled Bone Structure. Released in 2003, it was given four stars by Jim Andrews in DownBeat magazine.
Tonic was a music venue located at 107 Norfolk Street, New York City which opened in the Spring of 1998 and closed in April 2007. It described itself as supporting "avant garde, creative and experimental music" and known for its commitment to musical integrity. A former kosher winery, the small and unassuming building provided a sense of intimacy by setting the performers within arms length of the audience. Tonic was the location of numerous live recordings by a variety of musicians.
Samara Lubelski is an American singer, violinist, guitarist and bassist. She has been a member of numerous bands, including Of a Mesh, Metabolismus, Salmon Skin, the Sonora Pine, Hall of Fame, the Tower Recordings, MV & EE and the Bummer Road, and Chelsea Light Moving. Since 2003, she has released nine solo studio albums.
"@" is a studio album by John Zorn and Thurston Moore. It is the first collaborative album by the duo and was recorded in New York City in February 2013 and released by Tzadik Records in September 2013. The album consists of improvised music by Zorn and Moore that was recorded in the studio in real time with no edits or overdubs.
Okkyung Lee is a South Korean cellist, improviser, and composer.
