Thomas Buckner: Songs without Words

Songs Without Words, for voice (no text) and electronics presents work written for, and dedicated to, Thomas Buckner by some of the most pioneering composers in experimental music: Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, Annea Lockwood, and Phill Niblock.

For more than forty years, baritone Thomas Buckner has dedicated himself to the world of new and improvised music. Buckner has collaborated with a host of new music composers including Robert Ashley, Noah Creshevsky, Tom Hamilton, Earl Howard, Matthias Kaul, Leroy Jenkins, Bun Ching Lam, Annea Lockwood, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, Wadada Leo Smith, Chinary Ung, Christian Wolff, and many others. He has made appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Herbst Theatre, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Ostrava Days Festival, the Prague Spring Festival, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Buckner is featured on over forty recordings, including six of his own solo albums. His solo recording New Music for Baritone & Chamber Ensemble includes works by Annea Lockwood, Tania Leon, and Petr Kotik. He also appears in the CD/DVD release Kirili et le Nymphéas (Hommage à Monet). This recording documents the latest in his ongoing series of collaborations between the sculptor Alain Kirili and improvising musicians and dancers. For the past thirty years, Buckner has co-produced the "Interpretations" series in New York City.