Christopher A. Williams (born 1981 in San Diego) makes, organizes, and theorizes around experimental music and sound. As a composer and contrabassist, his work runs the gamut from chamber music, improvisation, and radio art to collaborations with dancers, sound artists, and visual artists. Performances and collaborations with
Derek Bailey, Compagnie Ouie/Dire,
Charles Curtis,
La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Ferran Fages,
Robin Hayward (as
Reidemeister Move), Barbara Held, Christian Kesten,
Christina Kubisch, Liminar, Maulwerker,
Charlie Morrow, David Moss,
Andrea Neumann, Mary Oliver and Rozemarie Heggen,
Ben Patterson, Robyn Schulkowsky, Ensemble SuperMusique, Vocal Constructivists, dancers Jadi Carboni and Martin Sonderkamp, filmmaker Zachary Kerschberg, and painters Sebastian Dacey and Tanja Smit.
This work has appeared in various North American and European experimental music circuits, as well as on VPRO Radio 6 (Holland), Deutschlandfunk Kultur, the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona, Volksbühne Berlin, and the American Documentary Film Festival.
Williams' artistic research takes the form of both conventional academic publications and practice-based multimedia projects. His writings appear in publications such as the
Journal for Artistic Research,
Open Space Magazine,
Critical Studies in Improvisation,
TEMPO,
Contemporary Music Review,
Journal of Sonic Studies, and diverse anthologies.
