Gabriel Saloman

Gabriel Saloman has been performing experimental, conceptual and freely improvised music for two decades. He is known for his work with Pete Swanson in Yellow Swans, a Portland based noise group that has released over 50 recordings and toured internationally over the course of their 9 year existence. He currently performs solo under his own name and has released records with Miasmah (GR), Shelter Press (FR), Infinite Greyscale (GR) and Beacon Sound (US). He has collaborated with numerous artists including Peter Broderick, Common Eider King Eider, C. Diab, Machinefabriek and as a member of Chambers with Michael Red.

Much of his recent music has been composed for contemporary dance, including collaborations with choreographers such as The Contingency Plan, Daisy Karen Thompson, Lisa Gelly Martin, Rob Kitsos, 605 Collective and Vanessa Goodman. He has been invited to perform at numerous festivals and arts institutions around the world, including most recently the Berkeley Art Museum (USA); The Frye Museum of Art (USA); Indexical (USA); Kunstewerk Institute of Contemporary Art (GR); Muziekenbouw (NL); and The Western Front (CAN).

Performing live Saloman has consistently explored the outer limits of guitar, exploring the emotive and material possibilities of the instrument alongside field recordings, magnetic tape and sampled piano and percussion. On record his compositions approach a neo-classical ambience, and stem from investigations into temporal abstractions, conceptual sound art and gestural noise. There is as well a parallel concern with sound as both liberating practice and praxis. In particular he is interested in sound’s relation to the body and its capacity to move collective bodies in space.