"Swirling around the songs was bass clarinet player Chris Cundy,
like a birdsong interrupting an argument"
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Chris Cundy plays bass clarinet, saxophones, and rarified woodwinds. He is a composer, performer, and sound installation artist based in the South West of England and has released four solo albums: The Disruptive Forest, Gustav Lost, Crude Attempt, and Of All The Common Flowers. In recent years his practice has focussed on site-specific phenomena incorporating 3D sound mappings and ambient location recordings. Important partnerships with The Roman Baths and Corinium Museum have resulted in a number of ensemble works incorporating objects, field recordings, and reconstructed historic texts.
Collaborations have also seen him working extensively in pop music, writing instrumental arrangements for songwriters including Little Annie, Baby Dee, and Ladan Hussein (aka Cold Specks). He has toured internationally as a solo artist and has performed with acts such as Timber Timbre, Cold Specks, Devon Sproule, and Mercury Prize nominated band Guillemots.
Growing up in the Medway towns Chris became acquainted with artist and punk musician Billy Childish who introduced him to the exploits of homemade music-making during occasional visits to his kitchen. This led to a lasting appreciation for the DIY music scene and by the time he was twelve Chris had already started out as a street busker. After hearing Eric Dolphy's music he took up the bass clarinet. He remains self-taught.
Also a visual artist, Chris studied painting at Cheltenham art college. During this period he discovered a synergy between drawing and improvisation which led to an interest in self-developed playing techniques such as multi-phonics, circular breathing, micro tonality and generally speaking a more tactile approach to the instrument. This approach has also informed compositional practices out of which a number of works have been written for him by Thanos Chrysakis, Tim Hodgkinson and others. While at Cheltenham he also met songwriter Fyfe Dangerfield who he has worked with in a number of different projects - most notably as additional saxophonist for the Mercury Prize nominated band Guillemots.
He is also involved with theatre and film music and features as soloist alongside the voice of Gillian Anderson in the original motion picture soundtrack for Robin Robin (Aardman Animations for Netflix 2021). In 2018 he was resident musician at Shakespeare's Globe and he has also toured with NoFit State Circus.
One off sessions have involved working with Moby, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Lol Coxhill, Vieux Farka Touré, Fatoumata Diawara, Alexander Hawkins, and Lisa Hannigan.