Biography

Tom Chant (born 1975, Dublin) is an improvising saxophonist, living in Barcelona.

Active in Barcelona and in London where he grew up, Tom has been exploring improvised music for over thirty years. He started his education in improvised music playing with Maggie Nicols in her weekly Gathering sessions in the mid 1990s, navigating the often chaotic but deeply felt sharing through sound that Maggie engendered.

In 1997 AMM’s master drummer Eddie Prévost created a new trio with Tom on soprano saxophone and John Edwards on double bass. Over the next 20 years they released four records, played in festivals around the world and continue to play.

Tom promoted experimental music concert series Audit for several years in London with the artist Benedict Drew and together they hosted the Audit radio show on Resonance FM. He continues to programme improvised music in Barcelona, creating the Pristine Folds concert series with artist and curator Mayssa Fattouh with whom he has also run listening workshops.

Tom is a member of Decentred, a quartet featuring Angharad Davies, John Edwards and Benedict Drew and was a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra, appearing on 5 recordings with them. He has played and recorded with Pat Thomas, Steve Beresford, Otomo Yoshihide, Ferran Fages, Rhodri Davies, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Sunny Murray, Telectu, Sharif Sehnaoui, Núria Andorrà, Lê Quan Ninh, Susana Santos Silva, Vasco Trilla and many others.

He has written music for experimental choir Musarc and experimental hand bell ringers. He was in the Cinematic Orchestra for 25 years and has recorded and toured with Bonobo. He was a founder member of Marseille Figs, a folk punk mess. He has acted in radio plays. He plays Terry Riley’s In C with a diverse group of Catalunya based musicians organised by Usted es un colectivo. He has explored digital feedback systems and currently works with dictaphones..