Peter Cusack is an English artist and musician who is a member of CRiSAP (Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice), and is a research staff member and founding member of the

London College of Communication The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

in the University of the Arts London. He was a founding member and director of the London Musicians' Collective. He is best known as a member of the avant garde musical quartet, Alterations (1978–1986; with

Steve Beresford Steve Beresford (born 6 March 1950) is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, suc ...

David Toop David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician, author, curator, and Emeritus Professor. From 2013 to 2021 he was professor of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication. He was a regular contributor to British ...

, and

Terry Day Terence Day (born 17 October 1940) is a musician specialising in free improvisation, a poet and a visual artist. He is a founding member of the ''Continuous Music Ensemble'' and ''The People Band''. Some of his musical partners include Derek Ba ...

), and the creator of field and wildlife recording-based albums including: *Where Is the Green Parrot? (1999) with tracks like "Toy Shop (Two Small Boys Go Shopping)" and "Siren", which are just as advertised. *Day for Night (2000), with Max Eastley. This features "duets" between Eastley's kinetic sculpture and Cusack's field recordings. *Baikal Ice (2003), featuring tracks like "Banging Holes In Ice" and "Floating Icicles Rocked By Waves" and "Falling In". Cusack has been involved in a wide range of projects throughout his career. Several of his pieces have been reviewed in ''

Leonardo Music Journal ''Leonardo Music Journal'' is an annual multimedia peer-reviewed academic journal (print and audio CD) published by the MIT Press on behalf of Leonardo, The International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology. The journal was established ...

'', the annual music Journal published by

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

. He has also curated an album for Leonardo Music Journal. He is currently research fellow on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's multidisciplinary 'Positive Soundscapes Project'.

Musical interests

Cusack is particularly interested in environmental sound and acoustic ecology. He has examined the sound properties of areas such as Lake Baikal,

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

, and the

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

oil fields, and is interested in how sounds change as people migrate and as technology changes. In 1998, Cusack started the "Your Favorite London Sound" project. The goal is to find out what London noises are found appealing by people who live in London. This was so popular that it has been repeated in Chicago, Beijing, and other cities. He is involved in the "Sound & The City" art project using sounds from Beijing in October 2005. Cusack's ''Sounds From Dangerous Places'' is a project to collect sounds from sites which have sustained major environmental damage. Sites that Cusack is working on include

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...

, the

oil fields, and areas around controversial dams on the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

and

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

river systems in south east

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. Cusack's performances are a central part of the book ''Haunted Weather: Music, Silence, and Memory'' (Toop, 2004) by his old collaborator and respected music critic and author,

. Toop investigates the use of environmental sound and electronic instruments in experimental music in his book.

Other performances

With clarinetist Simon Mayo, he formed the duo known as "A Touch of the Sun". His first "major" recording was part of Fred Frith's 1974 record, "Guitar Solos". He was one of the first to play the

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

in England, which gained him the respect of London's musical avant garde. As a musician, he has collaborated with artists such as

Clive Bell Arthur Clive Heward Bell (16 September 1881 – 17 September 1964) was an English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group. He developed the art theory known as significant form. Biography Origins Bell was born in East S ...

Nic Collins Nicolas Collins (born March 26, 1954 in New York City) is a composer of mostly electronic music, a sound artist and writer. He received his BA and MA from Wesleyan University, and his PhD from the University of East Anglia. Upon graduating from ...

, Alterations,

Chris Cutler Chris Cutler (born 4 January 1947) is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, ...

Max Eastley Max Eastley (born 1 December 1944, Torquay, Devon, England) is a British visual and sound artist. He is part of the Cape Farewell Climate Change project. He studied painting and graphic art at Newton Abbot Art School and then went on to gain a BA ...

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

, Hugh Davies,

Annette Krebs Annette may refer to: Film and television * '' Walt Disney Presents: Annette'', 1950s television series * ''Annette'' (film), a 2021 musical film Other * Annette (given name), list of people with the name * Annette Island, Alaska * Tropical Storm ...

and Eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

singer Viv Corringham. A live performance with

Nicolas Collins Nicolas Collins (born March 26, 1954 in New York City) is a composer of mostly electronic music, a sound artist and writer. He received his BA and MA from Wesleyan University, and his PhD from the University of East Anglia. Upon graduating from ...

was released as "A Host, of Golden Daffodils" in 1999.

Selected Reviews

*Voila Enough! 1979–1981 :''Culled from performances in Bracknell, Tilburg, and Berlin between 1979 and 1981, Voila Enough! is a snapshot of a chaotic and intensely creative quartet featuring Peter Cusack, Terry Day, David Toop, and Steve Beresford (principally on guitar, percussion, flutes, and piano, respectively, but also a bewildering number of instruments, conventional and unconventional)...Alterations' music redefines itself from moment to moment, both in terms of its overall structure and the material used to build it. Nearly a quarter of a century on, its power to captivate, infuriate, and have you falling off your chair in hysterics is entirely undimmed.'' (Dan Warburton,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

) *Baikal Ice :''You can hear the vast spaces, the majesty of the frozen lake, and the 'pittoresque' of the location through the wind, bird, and human sounds, but also through the acoustical features of the recordings. We can hear unusual bird songs, children playing with an outdoor PA system, Cusack in his daily routine (mediated by his very dry sense of humour). The recordings are crystal clear and ... create their own stories and convey a sense of here and now...these recordings disclose a unique soundworld. This reviewer would not be surprised if a compilation album of remixes/reworkings based on these recordings surfaced soon.'' (emphasis added; François Couture,

) *Where is the Green Parrot? :"''...Cusack's field recordings are blended and sequenced against a light tracery of studio playing. Two main sections bring a structural cohesion to this grainy collection of 'pieces, recordings and in-betweens'...''", (

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2 ...

, 7/00, p.64) *Day for Night :"''This CD represents a 25-year collaboration between renowned British avant-garde improviser Peter Cusack and instrument builder and sculptor Max Eastley. With numerous releases on ReR and Incus, the two musicians are mainstays of the British improvised music world...The duo creates intriguing delicate compositions with these instruments....''"(Skip Jansen,

) *Your Favourite London Sounds :''A new disc from the tireless London Musicians' Collective embarks on a sonic journey in their own city, asking Londoners, "What is your favorite London sound and why?" They received hundreds of responses, and musician Peter Cusack took it upon himself to hunt down and record those sounds, 40 of which appear here.''(Kenneth Goldsmith,

New York Press ''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hent ...

, Vol 15, Issue 9, 26 February 2002)

Activities related to music

He co-founded an artist-owned record label called "Bead Records" which has released many previously unavailable pieces in 1972. It had released more than 30 albums, as of 2007. In 1975 Derek Bailey,

, Max Boucher,

Paul Burwell Paul Dean Burwell (24 April 1949 – 4 February 2007) was a British thaumaturge and percussionist, influential in the fields of free improvisation and experimental art. Born in Ruislip, he studied at Ealing Art College and in the workshops organ ...

, Jack Cooke, Peter Cusack, Hugh Davies, Madelaine and Martin Davidson, Richard Leigh,

, John Russell,

Philipp Wachsmann Philipp John Paul Wachsmann (born 5 August 1944) is an African avant-garde jazz/jazz fusion violinist born in Kampala, Uganda, probably better known for having founded his own group Chamberpot. He has worked with many musicians in the free jazz id ...

and

Colin Wood Colin Arthur Wood (born 15 June 1943) is a British musician engaged in the field of jazz and rock music. Wood was born in Camberwell, South East London, & was moved to Somerset in 1950. He played jazz piano while still at school. In 1962 he went ...

formed the journal MUSICS, later described as "an impromental experivisation arts magazine". Cusack produces the monthly radio program "Vermilion Sounds" with Isobel Clouter. Vermilion Sounds explores environmental sounds and is broadcast by

Resonance FM Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station specialising in the arts run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC). The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and ...

in London. John Levack Drever, writing in Soundscape, comments: :''Of significant note is the work of Peter Cusack and Isobel Clouter (from the

British Library Sound Archive The British Library Sound Archive, formerly the British Institute of Recorded Sound; also known as the National Sound Archive (NSA), in London, England is among the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word a ...

who we now welcome onto the UKISC Management Committee), who have done a sterling job producing Vermilion Sounds—a weekly radio show for Resonance FM...''

Other projects

*''Soundlines'': City of London Festival educational project on music and environmental sound in East London schools (April to November 2003). *''Baku, 5 Quarters'' at the University of Baku, Azerbaijan. This was a collaboration with Swiss video artist Ursula Biemann in 2004. *''Urban Grime'', exhibition at the Museum of London Sept 2003 to Jan 2004 *''Send+Receive Festival'' performance & workshops, Winnipeg, Canada 2004: *''LMC Guitar Festival'' performances, Museum of Garden History, London 2004 * ''Frère Jacques et autres pièces à Francis: Expositions. 1997. Saint-Fons'', with Ron Haselden, a British artist living in the French town of Brizard, in

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

. This was a well-known interactive multimedia piece featuring the song ''

Frère Jacques "Frère Jacques" (, ), also known in English as "Brother John", is a nursery rhyme of French origin. The rhyme is traditionally sung in a round. The song is about a friar who has overslept and is urged to wake up and sound the bell for the mat ...

''.''Frère Jacques et autres pièces à Francis: Expositions. 1997. Saint-Fons'' Ron Haselden, Saint-Fons, Centre d'Arts Plastiques, 1997,

International collaborations

Cusack 's activities take him far afield. He had done work in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, Canada,

, Beijing,

, China's most western province,

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

and France. He also spent 2 years at the

STEIM STEIM (STudio for Electro Instrumental Music) was a center for research and development of new musical instruments in the electronic performing arts, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Beginning in the 1970's, STEIM became known as a pioneering cen ...

studio in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, honing his electronic music skills.

Selected recordings

*''Your Favourite London Sounds 1998–2001'', Peter Cusack, Resonance (2002)
''Day For Night'', Peter Cusack, Max Eastley, Paradigm (2000).
The compilation of recordings from a 25-year collaboration. *''Interruptions'', Terry Day, EMANEM 4125; Cusack plays on two tracks, recordings from 1978–1981. *''Voila Enough! 1979–1981'' (Atavistic ALP239CD) – CD release of the group Alterations (Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack, Terry Day, David Toop)

* ttp://www.emusic.com/album/10865/10865900.html ''Where is the Green Parrot?'', Peter Cusack, RER Megacorp / IODA (1999)br>''The Horse Was Alive, The Cow Was Dead'', Peter Cusack album with 46 tracks''Butlers Wharf,'' Peter Cusack
*''Ghosts & Monsters: Technology & Personality in Contemporary Music'', Composer: Robert Ashley, Frieder Butzmann, John Cage,

Cornelius Cardew Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, ...

, Henning Christiansen, et al., Conductor: Christian von Borries, Guy Protheroe, Performers: Peter Cusack, Margaret Leng Tan, Jerry Hunt, Shelley Hirsch, Berliner Philharmoniker, Emf Media (2 May 2000) includes an extract from a Host, of Golden Daffodils – Nicolas Collins, Peter Cusack *''Haunted Weather'', assorted artists, Staubgold Germany, 25 May 2004, includes "Flight Path Trace" by Peter Cusack (companion CD to ''Ghosts and Monsters: Technology and Personality in Contemporary Music'', Leonardo Music Journal 8 (1998), Leonardo / MIT Press, 1998) *''Not Necessarily "English Music": A collection of experimental music from Great Britain, 1960–1977'', curated by David Toop, Leonard Music Journal CD Series Volume 11, includes ''Geese'' recorded in 1974 by Peter Cusack and Simon Mayo (A Touch of the Sun), the companion CD to 2001 Volume of Leonardo Music Journal, MIT Press, 2001. *''Nightjars and Roe Deer'', and ''Squabble'' (both from CD to Musicworks #59, Peter Cusack) included i
''Songs Soaring''
(René van Peer, catalogue for festival ''Whistling in the Dark/Pfeifen in Walde'', organised by

Matthias Osterwold Matthias Osterwold (born 1950) is a German culture manager. Life Born in Hamburg, Osterwold studied sociology, economics and urban research in Hamburg as well as musicology in Berlin. In 1983, he was one of the founders of the "Freunde Guter Mu ...

and Nicolas Collins in Podewil, Berlin (Germany), 9 to 18 September 1994, organised by Matthias Osterwold and Nicolas Collins in Podewil, Berlin (Germany), 9 to 18 September 1994, pub. by Volker Straebel and

, in association with Nicolas Collins, Valerian Maly and Elke Moltrecht. Distribution through Podewil and Maly Verlag, 1994.)
''TECHNO MIT STÖRUNGEN''
an album recorded at festival "music unlimited" at Alter Schlachthof Wels, Austria, 11 November 1995. The album features Peter Cusack playing "bousouki & interactive birds"

Curations

accompanying the 2006 Volume of Leonardo Music Journal, Leonardo Music Journal Volume 16 (2006), MIT press, 2006.

Selected publications

*''"Ghosts and Monsters": Contributors' Notes"'', Alexander Abramovitch Krejn, Christian von Borries, John Cage, Andrew Culver, John Tilbury, Paul de Marinis, Robert Ashley, Henning Christiansen, Alvin Lucier, Peter Cusack, Shelley Hirsch, Jerry Hunt, Michael Schell, Frieder Butzmann, Michael Snow, Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 8, Ghosts and Monsters: Technology and Personality in Contemporary Music (1998), pp. 64–74, MIT Press, 1998.
Positive Soundscape Project: A re-evaluation of environmental sound''
Mags Adams, Angus Carlyle, Peter Cusack, Bill Davies, Ken Hume, Paul Jennings, Chris Plack, Research Proposal. *''Dialogue'', Peter Cusack, Soundscape—The Journal of Acoustic Ecology 1 (2) p8, 2000.

References

*''Haunted Weather: Music, Silence, and Memory'', David Toop, Serpent's Tail, 1 July 2004,

Notes

External links

Peter Cusack's official websiteFavourite sounds project's websiteSounds from dangerous places project's website''Alterations'' album reviews.
This album was recorded in 1981 and released in 1999.
Bead Records website
the record company Cusack co-founded in 1972, which has released more than 30 albums. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cusack, Peter Year of birth missing (living people) Living people English electronic musicians English experimental musicians Field recording