Martin Mayes

Born 6 May 1952, Dumfries, UK, horn.

Born in Scotland but now resident in Turin, Martin Mayes started his career on the London experimental music scene of the seventies, where he was a founder member of the London Musicians' Collective as well as a performer with street theatre and visual arts groups. He was attracted at a very young age to the music based purely on sound rather than pitch of Stockhausen and Cage and the writings of Cage in books such as Silence exerted a strong influence on the development of his ideas in general.

He studied classical and contemporary music and it was while at university that he came into contact with the Music Improvisation Company of Derek Bailey and Evan Parker. He has played and recorded with several important European orchestras lead by Radu Malfatti, Franz Koglmann, Georg Graewe, Cecil Taylor and Hannes Zerbe. In addition to improvisation and electronic music he is interested in mediaeval and early classical music with particular emphasis on the traditional repertoire for the "natural" (valveless) version of his difficult instrument, whose history and character he has studied in some depth. All these different facets of his artistic personality are portrayed on his first solo record, Unique horn 1997. Bach, handhorn, his self-invented "dopp-le horn", echoing spaces and the use of words all create a listening experience that is incorporated live in his solo concerts.

Further information about Martin Mayes can be found under:
www.ijm.it/mayes.html
www.shef.ac.uk/misc/rec/ps/efi/