John was born in Brighton in England and has lived in London since the late 1970s. His music ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and extreme acoustics. Originally a theoretical physicist, he published his PhD in 1982 and then left academia for music. He has since collaborated with hundreds of musicians, mostly involved with improvisation – including Derek Bailey, John Stevens, Gerry Hemingway, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, John Edwards, Toshimaru Nakamura, Eddie Prévost, Paul Lovens, Christian Marclay and Andy Moor. Compositions include Penny Wands for reconstructed Futurist Intonarumori, The Knot Garden for the Rova Saxophone Quartet, and somethingtobesaid for the John Butcher Group. In 2011 he was one of three recipients of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Composers. Alongside long-term collaborations, he particularly values playing in occasional encounters, which have ranged from large groups such as Butch Morris’s London Skyscraper and the EX Orkestra to duo concerts with Fred Frith, John Tilbury, Otomo Yoshihide, Matthew Shipp and Akio Suzuki. He is also well known as a solo saxophonist who attempts to engage with a sense of place. The well received Resonant Spaces CD is a collection of site-specific performances recorded during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.