CHRIS CONWAY - HISTORY

< main menu news latest catalogue UT releases Audion retail mail-order address email gig news

Chris Conway
Theremin, keyboards, electronics, etc.

I first met Chris, long before I knew he was a musician, back in 1988 I think, in a local jazz specialist (upstairs at Blackthorn Books on the High Street here in Leicester, now long gone) where we found a common liking for the music of Terje Rypdal, and other things like Terry Riley, sci-fi, ethnic music, etc. Later, Chris became a regular visitor to Ultima Thule, a reviewer for Audion magazine, and then revealed his new pet project: the ethnic cross-culture duo The Rain Garden. This was the start of a new musical venture that saw our paths cross on a number of occasions, with Shapeshifter, and eventually joining forces in the Improv Electronic and Quadelectronic projects, The Scanner Game and Escape Route. That's Chris to us in a nutshell, a really friendly guy who's always a pleasure to work with.

If we visit Chris Conway's own web site, we learn that he was born in Michigan, USA, but has spent most of his life in the UK. He's self-taught on the piano, and has been active in music since he was at school. Amongst a whole roster of bands he lists: Chimaera's Spectre: a Santana influenced band, Unity: a free improvisation trio, and Gloom: a jazz-rock band. He named another freeform rock group Bleak House after the Terje Rypdal album, and has since expanded his oeuvre from singer-songwriter material via jazz and ethnic musics, through to experimental electronics. He makes a living as a musician for hire, be that noodling on the piano in a cocktail bar, singing or whatever, and has done many a specially commissioned album for various new-age and relaxation music labels.

Ever expanding his musical scope, Chris eventually did his long promised cosmic opus album "Scanning Planet 3" and submitted it to Auricle for release. Out of that and the live improv gigs here at The Musician in Leicester, two projects developed: The Planet Scanners, and later Continuum. The key focus in these is his big new art-deco Theremin, with Continuum featuring The Styring with his infinite tonal guitar and jazz drummer John Runcie. The results are kind of like Terje Rypdal taken far out into space, with lots of wobbly sci-fi tones and ultimately the results are unique, and arguably even more out there than The Planet Scanners!

And the story goes on, Improv Electronic eventually became the extraordinary Quadelectronic, out of which lots of other projects have been born, notably Memory Wire and Audible Light, and Chris's range of releases gets ever wider....

Auricle discography...

SCANNING PLANET 3 - CDR Auricle AMCDR 029 (2003)
CONTACT LIGHT - CDR Auricle AMCDR 045 (2003)
THE PLANET SCANNERS: LIVE AND SCANNING - CDR Auricle AMCDR 054 (2004)
THE PLANET SCANNERS: IN ORBIT - CDR Auricle AMCDR 077 (2006)
CONTINUUM: NEPTUNE - CDR Auricle AMCDR 096 (2007)
CONTINUUM: BEST KEPT SECRET - CDR Auricle AMCDR 105 (2007)
THE PLANET SCANNERS: THE THIRD EXPEDITION - CDR Auricle AMCDR 117 (2007)

Chris Conway also features on this release...
¿DRONSZ? - CDR Auricle AMCDR 038 (2004) track: Electric Mountain

For more info, go to: http://www.chrisconway.org/

Chris Conway reviews in Audion - #15/24, #20/4, #24/24, #25/25, #29/4, #36/13, #37/42, #50/15