Spring 2021

We’re still confined, so my projects have consisted of things one can do online. 

I’ve been working with electronic image artist Angie Eng doing music for her a multisensory installation entitled Kosmorganic Art. We hope to have documentation on that in the coming weeks.

Another new project is with choreographer Yves Musard, who is currently based in Marseilles.  We’ve been working together virtually on a film featuring Yves and my music.

I’ve also been working on a series of short videos with installation artist Raphaele Shirley, here’s a short video of a piece she mounted that I added music to:

There is discussion of possible performances for the late spring and summer, but of course nothing is firm due to Covid.

I’m looking forward to performing live again. In that spirit, here is an excerpt of a performance I did in Paris, pre-Covid:

(video no longer available)

Other spring news:

There is a vinyl record in the works with the label SubRosa, it is a duo with me and the dearly recent departed Ghédalia Tazartès, scheduled to be released over the summer. I’ll announce the precise date as the time approaches.

I’m interested in doing sound tracks for films during these Covid times, so if you have a project the would benefit from a soundtrack by us, by all means let us know. I’m currently working with electronic sound, transverse flutes and of course electric guitar. Trumpet is on hold at present due to dental work.

I can be contacted through my agent, Pascal Tippex. Write to: pascal@julietippex.com

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March 2019 Rhys Chatham Music update:

Here is a quick update for what is going on in March in terms of music:

On March 16 and 17 I will be in Toulon teaching master classes at the Conservatoire Toulon Provence Méditerranée.  It the largest music conservatory in France.  I am composer-in-residence there this year.

Rhys at Toulon Opera

Toulon is a lovely city in the south of France just by the sea.  I forgot how beautiful it is, the last time I spent any time there was when I first came to France with Karole Armitage, it must have been back in the late seventies.  We did some performances in Châteauvallon, where there was a big dance festival every year, and the hotel was in Toulon. I had very fond memories of that time and, as it turns out, the mayor of Toulon has recently spruced the city up, even the seedier parts, and now its filled with little cafés restaurants and craft shops of all kinds.  I could really get into this!

Anyway, at the conservatory I’ll be giving a brass masterclass on the 16th, and the 17th will be devoted to electric guitar.

The following week, I’ll give another guitar master class  for the conservatory students on the 27th, and then we’ll have some student performances of some of the pieces we have been working on.  The performances will be free to the public.

Inside the Toulon Opera. Talk about Baroque, wow!

Orchestres électriques – directed by Rhys Chatham

  • G3 for 10 electric guitars, electric bass and drums
  • Waterloo, No 2
  • The Out of Tune Guitar, No. 4

Here is a list of the performances:

Thursday 28 March at 8:30 pm

Auditorium du conservatoire
Rostropovitch Landowski
Sainte-Maxime

Sainte-Maxime

Friday 29 March at 7:30pm
Friche de la belle de mai

Le Module Marseille
With an opening act by
The Marseille Labo Band
directed by Jean-Marc Montera

Saturday 30 March at 8:00pm
Opéra Toulon
tickets free by reservation

February 2019 Rhys Chatham update

This just in:

Concert at LAXART is cancelled

due to USA work visa issues.  The concert (see below) has been rescheduled for March.  An announcement on this page will be posted with the new date.


For February’s post I’ll share some photos from a recent concert with the percussionist Will Guthrie that we did at the Opera House in Toulon.

Then I’ll tell you about an upcoming duo performance with the French composer Ghédalia Tarzatès that will be presented in Los Angeles at the Laxart Gallery on Friday 15 February as part of the Frieze Music events.

Rhys Chatham & Will Guthrie Toulon Opera 26 Jan 2019

On 26 January 2019, Conservatoire Toulon Provence Méditerranée (TMP) presented a new work of mine at the Opera de Toulon (pictured just above) entitled Talisman, which is a duo for the percussionist Will Guthrie and myself at the Opéra de Toulon. I played transverse flutes (alto and C), electric guitar and trumpet, with Will on various percussion instruments.

Here are some lovely photos of the performance, taken by Olivier Pastor:

Coming up this month (February 2019):

Rhys Chatham and Ghédalia Tarzartes at Laxart.

I am preparing for a duo concert in LA with Ghedalia Tazartes. It’s on Friday, 15 February at LAXART Gallery, at 8:30pm. The show is free, so first come first served! The event is part of Frieze Music.

Here is the link for the address and other details:

http://laxart.org/events/ghedalia-tazartes-rhys-chatham

Here is the blurb from the site in case you don’t have time to visit it:

This gig features two legendary underground figures each of whom, in his own way, is a shaman of the avant-garde.

If Tazartès’ earliest recordings,  Diasporas (1979) and Total Eclipse of the Sun (1984) brought him into the orbit of musique concrete, he would define its outer most reaches. Composing with recorded material was the means to highly idiosyncratic ends as the mainstay of this material was tracks of him chanting. Over the years, Tazartès has emerged as a vocalist whose chants share an affinity with any and all cultures for whom it is sacred expression.

A denizen of Paris since 1987, multi-instrumentalist and composer Rhys Chatham needs no introduction. His activities, from playing with La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music and Tony Conrad’s Dream Syndicate to serving as The Kitchen’s first music director would define New York’s lower east side post-Minimal experimental music scene. This concert is Tazartès and Chatham’s’ second meeting after their stunning debut at Les Jardins de Simones.

This event is part of Frieze Music.

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