Chris Pitsiokos is a New York-born, Berlin-based saxophonist, improviser, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. He has performed extensively in North and South America, Europe and Japan. Chris has been praised by Rolling Stone for his “startlingly original vision” and “astonishingly fleet sax work.” Downbeat has identified his band CP Unit as “A persuasive combination of harmolodic jazz and contemporary noise rock.” As a soloist he has developed a unique voice on the alto saxophone: his expansion of the instrument’s vocabulary has served to multiply its emotive and formal possibilities. He has performed his own music at dozens of major festivals across the globe, including (but not limited to) Saalfelden Jazz Festival and Wels Unlimited Festival in Austria, Sapporo International Arts Festival in Japan, Moers Festival in Germany, Tempo Reale Festival in Italy, Rewire Festival in the Netherlands, Jazz Jantar Festival in Poland and Festival de Jazz Lima in Peru. In New York he has presented his work at Roulette Intermedium, ISSUE Project Room, and during a residency at John Zorn’s club the Stone. Lately, he has developed interactive, 4-channel electro-acoustic systems for saxophone and computer. He also composes music for film. His list of collaborators includes many of the leading lights of late-20th and 21st century improvised music, experimental music and free jazz: he has worked with Jaimie Branch, Luke Stewart, Peter Evans, Tyshawn Sorey, Lea Bertucci, Weasel Walter, Chris Corsano, Otomo Yoshihide, Nate Wooley, Axel Dörner, Julien Desprez, Sachiko M, and Paul Lytton to name a small few. His current focus is on solo performance, a duo with Otomo Yoshihide, his band CP Unit, and a collaborative band with Kalle Kalima, Ronny Graupe and Oliver Steidle called “ROKC Music.” — Hotelier