Chris Cutler (born 4 January 1947) is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English

avant-rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, wit ...

group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including

Art Bears Art Bears were an England, English avant-rock Musical ensemble, group formed during the disassembly of Henry Cow in 1978 by three of its members, Chris Cutler (percussion, texts), Fred Frith (guitar, bass guitar, violin, keyboards) and Dagmar Kr ...

News from Babel News from Babel were an English avant-rock group founded in 1983 by Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, Zeena Parkins and Dagmar Krause. They made two studio albums with several guest musicians (including Robert Wyatt) and disbanded in 1986. ...

, Pere Ubu and (briefly)

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

/Mothergong. He has collaborated with many musicians and groups, including

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry ...

, Lindsay Cooper, Zeena Parkins, Peter Blegvad, Telectu and The Residents, and has appeared on over 100 recordings. Cutler's career spans over four decades and he still performs actively throughout the world. Cutler created and runs the British

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

Recommended Records and is the editor of its sound-magazine, '' RēR Quarterly''. He has given a number of public lectures on music, published numerous articles and papers, and written a book on the political theory of contemporary music, '' File Under Popular'' (1984). Cutler also assembled and released '' The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set'' (2009), a collection of over 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings by the band.

Biography

Chris Cutler was born in January 1947 in Washington, D.C. to a British intelligence officer and his Austrian wife. In 1948 the family moved to England, where Cutler was brought up. He never studied music but tried his hand at banjo, guitar, trumpet and flute while at school. He finally settled for drums "because I wanted to be in a band and drummers were scarcest." Cutler formed his first band in 1963, playing Shadows and Ventures instrumental covers, then played in several R&B and soul bands. In 1966 he joined a band called Louise, with Tony Durant (later of Fuchsia), which performed on the London psychedelic club circuit for three years before breaking up. Looking for work, Cutler placed a series of advertisements in

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

over a period of nine months in 1970. This put him in touch with a number of musicians which led to Cutler and keyboardist Dave Stewart of

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

forming The Ottawa Music Company, a 26 piece rock composer's orchestra, in 1971. Soon afterwards, Henry Cow, looking to replace the drummer who had just left them, responded to one of Cutler's adverts and invited him to a rehearsal.

Henry Cow

Henry Cow had been formed in 1968 by

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

students

(guitar) and Tim Hodgkinson (woodwind and keyboards). By 1971 the band had gone through a number of personnel changes and it was only when Cutler joined them in September 1971 that the group stabilised. Frith, Hodgkinson and Cutler became Henry Cow's permanent core until the band split up in 1978. Henry Cow's prominence in

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

circles launched the careers of many of its members, including Cutler's. Their music was uncompromising and this eventually put them at odds with the mainstream

music business The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, represent ...

, forcing the band to do everything themselves: from recording, manufacturing and releasing their own albums, to organising their own tours and being their own management and agency. All this proved invaluable experience for Cutler that would assist him greatly in his future endeavours. The group spent most of its last three years touring Europe and many of Cutler's future collaborations resulted from contact made with musicians on these tours. In Henry Cow's last few months they initiated

Rock in Opposition Rock in Opposition or RIO was a movement representing a collective of progressive rock bands in the late 1970s united in their opposition to the music industry that refused to recognise their music. It was initiated by English avant-rock gro ...

(RIO), a collective of like-minded bands they had encountered through Europe that were united in their opposition to the

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

Recommended Records

After Henry Cow disbanded in 1978, Cutler created Recommended Records in London, an independent label and distribution network for RIO artists. The record label quickly filled the gap left by commercial labels and soon began to also release non-RIO bands and musicians. Recommended Records's aim was to produce records of high technical and musical quality, placing the musicians' interests first and profits second. This strategy, however, led to the label experiencing financial difficulties from time to time, but it stuck to its principles and has survived for over 25 years. There are a number of musicians whose work would never have seen the light of day had it not been for Cutler's label. Cutler also founded November Books in 1982, the publishing wing of Recommended Records.

Other bands and projects

Cutler's first post-Henry Cow project was

(1978–1981), a group formed by Cutler, and fellow Henry Cow members, Fred Frith (guitar and keyboards) and Dagmar Krause (vocals), six months before Henry Cow split up. Art Bears were a song-oriented group that recorded three studio albums. Cutler's main contributions were the songs' texts and (with Frith) the album productions. Art Bears (in the wake of Henry Cow) were well received by critics which further boosted Cutler's reputation in "progressive" circles. In 1982, Cutler co-founded the Anglo-German group Cassiber (1982–1992) with German musicians Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth and Christoph Anders. Over the next ten years Cassiber produced five albums and toured Europe, Asia, South and North America. Their music was very experimental and often involved spontaneously improvising pre-existing structured and arranged material. ChrisCutler November2007

In 1983, Cutler formed

(1983–1986), another song-orientated group with core members Cutler, Lindsay Cooper (from Henry Cow), Zeena Parkins (a United States harpist) and Dagmar Krause. With guest musicians (including Robert Wyatt and Sally Potter) they made two critically acclaimed studio albums, but did not perform live. Cutler was a member of the United States experimental rock band Pere Ubu between 1987 and 1989. He had first encountered them in Washington DC in 1978 while exploring the possibility of Henry Cow touring America (which never materialised as Henry Cow disbanded soon after). Cutler kept in touch with Pere Ubu until they split in the early 1980s and their singer, David Thomas began a solo career. Cutler and Lindsay Cooper joined Thomas in 1982 to form David Thomas and the Pedestrians, and for the next three years they toured Europe and North America and made two albums. Over the next few years, some of the ex-Pere Ubu members began joining Thomas's Pedestrians. Cooper left in 1985 and by 1987 the group (now called David Thomas and the Wooden Birds) was effectively Pere Ubu again. As Pere Ubu, the band (with Cutler) made two albums. Cutler left in 1989, but was credited as a co-writer on the band's 1991 album ''World in Collision'' for several songs written during his tenure. In 1991, Cutler and German composer Lutz Glandien recorded the critically acclaimed song project ''Domestic Stories''. Cutler wrote the song texts and played drums, while Glandien composed and performed the music with samplers and computers. The supporting musicians were Dagmar Krause (vocals), Fred Frith (bass and guitar) and Alfred Harth (saxophone and clarinet). Cutler collaborated with Glandien again in 1994 to record ''Scenes from no Marriage'' and to participate in p53, a commission for the 25th Frankfurt Jazz Festival with Zygmunt Krauze, Marie Goyette, Otomo Yoshihide. The (ec) Nudes were a band Cutler, Wädi Gysi (guitar) and Amy Denio (vocals, bass, saxophone, accordion) formed in 1993. The trio recorded ''Vanishing Point'', a CD of songs with texts by Cutler and music by Gysi and Denio, and toured all over Europe and visited Brasil. Bob Drake later joined the group on bass and as a quartet they toured all over Europe, Canada and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, but did not record. Cutler left the group in 1994. Cutler and Yugoslav keyboardist and composer Stevan Tickmayer formed The Science Group in 1997 to record ''A Mere Coincidence'' (1999), an album of songs on science topics, including

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

. Cutler wrote the texts, Tickmayer composed the music, and the rest of the group comprised Bob Drake (bass guitar, vocals) and Claudio Puntin (bass clarinet), with guests Amy Denio (vocals) and Fred Frith (guitar). In 2003 Cutler and Tickmayer reconstituted The Science Group as a quartet with Bob Drake (bass guitar) and

Mike Johnson James Michael Johnson (born January 30, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 56th speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2023. A member ...

(guitars), and released an instrumental album, ''Spoors''. In 1998, he joined John Wolf Brennan's sextet "HeXtet" to record a series of poetry settings, from

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

to contemporary Irish poets like Theo Dorgan and Paula Meehan, together with legendary singer Julie Tippetts, saxophonist Evan Parker, trombonist Paul Rutherford and clarinetist Peter Whyman.

Other collaborations

The ex-Henry Cow members have always maintained close contact with each other and Cutler still collaborates with many of them. Cutler and Fred Frith have been touring Europe, Asia and the Americas since 1978 and have given over 100 duo performances. Four albums from some of these concerts have been released. In December 2006, Cutler, Frith and Tim Hodgkinson performed together at The Stone in New York City, only their second concert performance since Henry Cow's demise in 1978. Cutler, John Greaves and Geoff Leigh formed The Artaud Beats with Yumi Hara. Cutler and Hara also work together in Half the Sky, a band formed in 2015 to play the music of former Henry Cow member Lindsay Cooper, principally pieces she wrote for News from Babel and Henry Cow. The band have performed in Japan, France, the UK and Germany. Chris Cutler setting up before a Half the Sky performance

Chris Cutler setting up before a Half the Sky performance

On 4 November 2006 Cutler, Jon Rose (violin) and Zeena Parkins (harp) performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov, at the

Glasgow City Halls Glasgow's City Halls and Old Fruitmarket is a concert hall and former market located on Candleriggs, in the Merchant City, Glasgow, Scotland. History The City Halls are part of a market complex designed by John Carrick in 1882, but the grand ha ...

in Glasgow, Scotland. The concert was recorded and later broadcast by

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

on 24 March 2007. Other musicians and bands Cutler has performed and recorded with over the years include Tim Hodgkinson, Lindsay Cooper, Peter Blegvad, John Greaves, René Lussier, Jean Derome, Tom Cora, Aksak Maboul, The Residents, The Work, Duck and Cover, Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar, Kalahari Surfers,

Hail Hail is a form of solid Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailsto ...

, Biota and Brainville 3. In 2009, Cutler toured North America with avant-garde Czech violinist

Iva Bittová Iva Bittová (born 22 July 1958) is a Czech avant-garde violinist, singer, and composer. She began her career as an actor in the mid-1970s, appearing in several Czech feature films, but switched to playing violin and singing in the early 1980s ...

. In 2015 he collaborated with Alfred Harth founding a group Hope, a commission for the 46th Frankfurt Jazz Festival with Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Mitsuru Nasuno.

Solo performances

Since the late 1990s, Cutler began giving solo electrified percussion performances to audiences across the world. His first was in Tokyo in June 1998, which was recorded in a documentary film, ''At the Edge of Chaos'' (also known as ''12 June 1998''), by award-winning film director Shinji Aoyama. The first part of the film is equipment set-up and sound-checks, plus interviews with Cutler, while the second part is the improvised concert itself. In 2001 Cutler released ''Solo: A Descent Into the Maelstrom'', an album of solos on his electrified drum kit taken from live performances in Europe and the United States between August 2000 and May 2001. In 2005 he released ''Twice Around the World'', an album of real-time recordings made from all over the world between 23.30 and midnight GMT. The material was taken from a daily half-hour radio programme Cutler ran for Resonance FM: Out of the Blue Radio between July 2001 and July 2002. A companion album, ''There and Back Again'', comprising 44 environmental recordings, was released by Cutler in 2006.

Electrified drum kit

Cutler never studied music and taught himself drumming on makeshift drum kits assembled with whatever was on hand. He slowly developed a technique using a "top-down" approach as opposed to the traditional "bottom-up" approach used by schooled drummers. Drummers are first taught basic patterns which are later combined into more complex patterns. Cutler learned the opposite way, hearing or imagining a sound and then disciplining his hands and feet to reproduce it. This "top-down" approach resulted in a unique style of drumming that pervades all of Cutler's performances and recordings. By the time Cutler was drumming for Henry Cow in 1971, he had become a perfectly competent, albeit unconventional, drummer. The nature of Henry Cow was to experiment and explore and it was here that Cutler developed and refined his drumming techniques. It was also here that he started to electrify his drum kit. He began by attaching old telephone mouthpieces to drums and cymbals, and connecting them to an

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power su ...

and a

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

unit. He later added a small mixer for four independent inputs. The effect was very basic: a few low-grade inputs with only equalisation and reverberation to manipulate. By 1982, Cutler had added another small mixer, a

pitch shift Pitch shifting is a sound recording technique in which the original pitch of a sound is raised or lowered. Effects units that raise or lower pitch by a pre-designated musical interval ( transposition) are known as pitch shifters. Pitch and ...

er and a delay unit. He had also begun using cheap guitar

transducer A transducer is a device that Energy transformation, converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another. Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, M ...

s and a table full of additional wired objects (pans, metal trays, small tambours and egg-slicers). Cutler experimented briefly with drum pads triggered to play sampled or synthesized sounds, but quickly dismissed this option because he found them unresponsive and inflexible. They reduced a drum to nothing more than a switch: hit it and a pre-programmed sound is emitted, irrespective of how hard or in what manner the drum is struck. Cutler preferred real-time processing: amplifying and modifying actual sounds produced by the drum, making it a kind of an electroacoustic instrument, immediate and responsive, and retaining all the qualities of an acoustic drum kit. Cutler went on to wire his entire drum kit, using a 16 channel mixer with multi-effect processors, a "Space pedal", a "Whammy pedal", a PDS 8000 and an old Boss pitch shifter/delay unit. In addition to transducers, he also attached miniature microphones to some of the drums and sticks. Cutler introduced feedback into the mix by placing a monitor speaker near the kit. The electrified drum kit continues to evolve and to Cutler it is "satisfyingly unpredictable", responsive to all his old techniques while continuing to generate new ones. It has a unique "voice" that Cutler still has not plumbed the depths of. This is what prompted him to start giving solo performances because it tested his skill at playing an instrument he had to treat as an equal and evolve with.

Writings and talks

Talks

In the early 1980s, Chris Cutler became active in the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and started giving talks and participating in symposia throughout the world. Some of the talks he has given are: *"Composing with Other People's Music – Creativity or Theft?", British Council,

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

. *"Electrification and Experimentation, the Development of New Musical Resources in the Popular Field", Union of Composers, Moscow. *"Improvisation: Motives and Methods", IASPM,

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. *"Rock in Opposition, a case study". Academy of Science, Berlin. *"Studio Composition and Visualisation" – a case study IASPM, University, Montreal *"Sonic and Structural Convergence at the fringes of Musical Genres". The Royal College of Art, London. *"On The Impact of Recording Technology on Popular music." Pomeriggi Musicali do Milano. *"Plunderphonics and Postmodernism", Dissonanten,

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

. *"Sampling and Plunderphonics", Museum School,

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. *"The Recording Studio as a Compositional Instrument", The Royal College of Art, London.

Essays

Cutler has written and published a number of essays on music, including: *"Necessity and Choice in Musical Forms: Concerning Musical and Technical Means and Political Needs" (1990) – an essay on the evolution of recorded music, published in ''The Cassette Mythos''. *"Plunderphonia" (1994) – an essay on

plunderphonics Plunderphonics is a music genre in which tracks are constructed by sampling (music), sampling recognizable musical works. The term was Neologism, coined by composer John Oswald (composer), John Oswald in 1985 in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Aud ...

, published in ''Musicworks 60''. *"Scale" (1997) – an essay on the scale of sounds in music, published in ''The Gramophone Special Edition "Perspectives on Contemporary Music"''. *"Thoughts on Music and the Avant Garde" (2005) – an essay commissioned for a book dedicated to Professor Gunther Mayer, published in ''Perfect Sound Forever''. *"Locality" (2006) – published in ''Resonance Magazine''. *"The Road to Plunderphonia" (2011) – published by Quaderns d'àudio/ Ràdio Web MACBA.

Radio broadcasts

From 2012, Cutler has been producing a series of

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s/lectures entitled "Probes" that examine the history of music from the invention of sound recording to the present day. The series was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and published and broadcast by "Quaderns d'àudio"/ Ràdio Web MACBA.

Books

Cutler has also published three books: *''The Henry Cow Book'' (co-authored with Tim Hodgkinson) (1981) – a collection of documents and information about the band. *'' File Under Popular'' (1984) – a collection of theoretical and critical writings on music, also published in Polish, German and Japanese. *''Not as We Choose'' (2020) – a further collection of theoretical and critical writings on music, illustrated by Peter Blegvad.

Discography

Here is a selection of albums Chris Cutler has performed on, showing the year they were first released:

Bands and projects

;With Henry Cow * ''

Legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

'' (1973, LP,

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

, UK) * '' Unrest'' (1974, LP, Virgin, UK) * ''

Concerts A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

'' (1976, 2xLP,

Caroline Records Caroline Records is a record label that was founded in 1973. Founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976 and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. The label rel ...

, UK) * ''Western Culture (album), Western Culture'' (1979, LP, Broadcast, UK) * ''The Virgin Years – Souvenir Box'' (1991, 3xCD, East Side Digital Records, US) * ''Henry Cow Box'' (2006, 7xCD, Recommended Records, UK) * ''Stockholm & Göteborg'' (2008, CD, Recommended Records, UK) * '' The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set'' (2009, 9xCD+DVD, Recommended Records, UK) * ''The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow'' (2019, 17xCD+DVD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Henry Cow/Slapp Happy *''Desperate Straights'' (1975, LP, Virgin Records, UK) *''In Praise of Learning'' (1975, LP, Virgin Records, UK) ;With

*''Hopes and Fears (Art Bears album), Hopes and Fears'' (1978, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''Winter Songs (Art Bears album), Winter Songs'' (1979, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''The World as It Is Today'' (1981, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''The Art Box'' (2004, 6xCD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With The Residents *''Eskimo (album), Eskimo'' (1979, LP, Ralph Records, USA) *''Commercial Album'' (1980, LP, Ralph Records, USA) ;With Aksak Maboul *''Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits'' (1980, LP, Crammed Discs, Belgium) ;With Cassiber *''Man or Monkey?'' (1982, 2xLP, Riskant, Germany) *''Beauty and the Beast'' (1984, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''Perfect Worlds'' (1986, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''A Face We All Know'' (1990, CD, Recommended Records, UK) *''Live in Tokyo'' (1998, 2xCD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With The Work *''Live in Japan (The Work album), Live in Japan'' (1982, LP, Recommended Records, Japan) ;With

*''Live in Prague and Washington'', (1983, LP, Recommended Records, UK) – 1990 CD release retitled ''Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington'' *''Live in Trondheim, Berlin & Limoges, Vol. 2'' (1994, CD, Recommended Records, UK) *''2 Gentlemen in Verona'' (2000, CD, Recommended Records, UK) *''The Stone: Issue Two'' (2007, CD, Tzadik Records, US) ;With Lindsay Cooper, Bill Gilonis, Tim Hodgkinson and Robert Wyatt *''The Last Nightingale'' (1984, LP, Recommended Records, UK) ;With

*''Work Resumed on the Tower'' (1984, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''Letters Home (News from Babel album), Letters Home'' (1986, LP, Recommended Records, UK) ;With David Thomas and the Pedestrians *''Winter Comes Home'' (1983, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''Variations on a Theme (David Thomas album), Variations on a Theme'' (1983, LP, Rough Trade Records, UK) *''More Places Forever'' (1985, LP, Rough Trade Records, UK) ;With Duck and Cover *''RēR Quarterly, Re Records Quarterly Vol.1 No.2'' (1985, LP, Recommended Records UK) ; Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso-Bar *''Tournée Mondiale/Été '89'' (1987, LP, Ambiances Magnétiques, Canada) *''Fin de Siècle'' (1989, LP, Ambiances Magnétiques, Canada) ;With Peter Blegvad *''Downtime'' (1988, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''Just Woke Up'' (1995, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''Hangman's Hill'' (1998, LP, Recommended Records, UK) *''Go Figure'' (2017, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Pere Ubu *''The Tenement Year'' (1988, LP, Fontana Records) *''Cloudland (album), Cloudland'' (1989, LP, Fontana Records) * ''Worlds in Collision (album), Worlds in Collision'' (1991, Fontanta; does not perform but credited as co-writer on three songs) ;With

*''Kirk'' (1992, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Lutz Glandien *''Domestic Stories'' (1993, CD, Recommended Records, UK) *''Scenes From No Marriage'' (1994, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With The (ec) Nudes *''Vanishing Point'' (1994, LP, Recommended Records, UK) ;With p53 *''p53 (album), p53'' (1996, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Biota *''Object Holder'' (1995, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Zeena Parkins *''Shark!'' (1996, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With René Lussier and Jean Derome *''Three Suite Piece'' (1996, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With John Wolf Brennan *HeXtet: ''Through the Ear of a Raindrop'' (1998, CD, Leo Records, UK) ;With Thomas Dimuzio *''Quake'' (1999, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With The Science Group *''A Mere Coincidence'' (1999, CD, Recommended Records, UK) *''Spoors'' (2003, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Roberto Musci, Jon Rose and Claudio Gabbiani *''Steel Water Light'' (2001, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Vril (band), Vril *''Effigies in Cork'' (2003, CD, Recommended Records, UK) *''The Fatal Duckpond'' (2009, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With The Orckestra *"Unreleased Orckestra Extract" (3" CD single, 2006, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Brainville 3 *''Trial by Headline'' (2008, CD, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Thomas Dimuzio and Fred Frith *''Golden State'' (2010, LP, Recommended Records, UK) ;With Fred Frith and Tom Cora *''Live in Tel Aviv and Aubervilliers'' (2021, CD, Fred Records, UK) ;With Yumi Hara *''Groove Study'' (2023, CD, UK)

Solo

*''Solo: A Descent Into the Maelstrom'' (2001, CD, Recommended Records) *''Twice Around the Earth'' (2005, CD, Recommended Records) *''There and Back Again'' (2006, CD, Recommended Records) *''Compositions and Collaborations 1972-2022'' (2023, box set, Recommended Records)

Bibliography

* * *Cutler, Chris, ed. (2009). ''The Road: Volumes 1–5'' (book from '' The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set''). Recommended Records. *Cutler, Chris, ed. (2009). ''The Road: Volumes 6–10'' (book from ''The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set''). Recommended Records. *Cutler, Chris (2011). ''The Road to Plunderphonia''. Quaderns d'àudio/Ràdio Web MACBA. . *Cutler, Chris (2020). ''Not as We Choose: Music, Memory and Technology''.

Films

*''At the Edge of Chaos'' (2001, DVD) – 65 minute documentary (also known as ''12 June 1998'') by Shinji Aoyama on a Chris Cutler solo percussion concert in Tokyo, June 1998. *''Roulette TV Volume 8'' (2003, DVD, Roulette) – live TV recording back-to-back with Shelley Hirsch, March 2001.

Footnotes

References

Works cited

* *

External links

Chris Cutler homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cutler, Chris Chris Cutler, 1947 births Living people English male drummers English rock drummers English male songwriters English experimental musicians Free improvisation Canterbury scene English music theorists British music industry executives Henry Cow members Pere Ubu members Gong (band) members Art Bears members News from Babel members The Orckestra members