Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE, FRSA, (born January 19, 1955) is an English conductor. He rose to prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and is currently principal conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Yoshihide Otomo (大友良英), born August 1, 1959 in Yokohama, Japan, is an experimental musician, a turntablist and guitarist. He played in rock bands while at college, but turned to improvisation after discovering free jazzand free improvisation musicians like the guitarist Derek Bailey, the saxophonist Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi (from whom he had lessons). He was the leader of the noise rock group Ground-Zero in the 90's.
The Extinguishers are a bunch of fucking handsome pimps who'll crash yer town, neck yer pint and go home with your girlfriend, but they'll rock you so hard you won't have time to think, let alone care. What they lack in cleanliness and manner they more than make up for in talent, good looks and sheer charisma. Their unique Ska/Punk/Hardcore mix just has to be heard to be believed. They started in 2003, and spent 2 years in isolation perfecting their skills, finally unleashing the behemoth that is The Extinguishers on the 30th April 2005...
Tom Carter is best known for his work with Charalambides, which he co-founded with longtime creative partner (and one time wife) Christina Carter in 1991. Carter has also undertaken solo work and numerous collaborations with Bardo Pond, Vanessa Arn, Robert Horton, Ian Nagoski, Tower Recordings, Double Leopards, Yellow Swans, Starving Weirdos, and Jandek, among others.
A native of Korea, Okkyung Lee has been developing her own voice in a contemporary cello performance, improvisation and composition. using her solid classical training as a springboard, she incorporates jazz, sounds, korean traditional music, noise with extended techniques and create her unique blend of music.
Zeitkratzer was founded in 1999. Its concept of a European soloists ensemble is unique worldwide. The nine musicians, the light and the sound engineer live in different European cities from Vienna via Amsterdam to London and meet for working phases at Berlin. Here, new projects are developed - in recent years as a steady guest of the Volksbuehne Berlin. Zeitkratzer finances itself through free projects and international concerts and thus is independant of institutional investors. This freedom allowed idiosyncratic and pathbreaking programs that made zeitkratzer internationally recognized.
There are at least 6 bands / projects named Sleepers: 1. Sleepers is the recording and performance project of Silas Ciarán and Amanda Boutourline. It began as a solo outlet for Ciarán in early 2004, and was at this time geared towards Black and Doom Metal with flecks of ambient. It is now a full fledged crossover project, incorporating many different sources into one heap of sound. 2. Sleepers was a progressive new wave rock band from Gold Coast, Australia. They have changed their name to Awaken I Am.
1) Based in Athens, Greece, AZA attempts to tweak ordinary sounds & sights to match his ordinary everyday experience. 2) There is another band called Aza, playing Tamazight (Berber) influenced music out of Santa Cruz, USA. Their 2003 debut album is called "Marikan" and they recently released a second album "Tamgra Wushen", both available from CDBaby. The band's site is: http://www.azamusic.com/
There are at least 4 bands that go by the name Bad Taste Bad Taste is a band formed in Bar, Montenegro by Nemanja Bečo Bečanović. Their style varies from indie pop/rock and "Boston-influenced" alternative rock to post-rock/experimental/noise music mainly created in Nemanja's room. They released several albums, including: 24 Hours (2003), Strange Ways (2003), SubUrbia (2003), In One Bright Shiny Moment...
Charalambides are a musical group originally from Houston, Texas, USA and lately of Austin, Texas. Formed in 1991 by Tom Carter and Christina Carter, adding Jason Bill and Heather Leigh Murray, they have followed in the footsteps of other Texas psychedelic music artists such as The 13th Floor Elevators, The Red Krayola, and Jandek. Their music contains elements typical of psychedelic music such as reverb, extended instrumental jamming and the use of found sounds, as well as elements of noise, avant garde, folk, and drone music.