Ken Hyder has been playing and composing music for over 40 years. In that time he has produced more than three dozen albums of original material. He began playing jazz in Scotland before moving south to London where he played at the Little Theatre Club at Garrick Yard, St Martin's Lane - an avant garde haunt, run by John Stevens.
In 1970, Hyder formed Talisker, and went on to make six albums with this pioneering and proto-type Celtic jazz group. In the 1970s, he began moving away from jazz and into collaborations with musicians from different musical backgrounds, including Irish, South African and South American players. Later, he became interested in exploring spiritual aspects of music with spiritual practitioners like Tibetan and Japanese Buddhist monks, and Siberian shamans.
Scotland and Siberia are now the strongest influences in his current work.
"He has provided a blueprint for the increasing number of European musicians who have been incorporating elements of folk music into their jazz.”
The Guinness Who’s Who of Jazz
“Improvising drummers like Shannon Jackson, Ken Hyder and Tony Oxley get closer to Varese’s tight structure and keen sense of abruptness.”
Ben Watson, Honesty Is Explosive!
“He propels his players with a frenzied energy and passion that’s breathtaking.”
Fanfare, New York
“Hyder’s debut record – Dreaming of Glenisla recorded 1975 – sounds for all the world like an Albert Ayler album released post-New Grass. The twin sax/twin bass lineup of Hyder’s quintet creates a droning, cantatorial spiritsound one can imagine as the sound of Ayler’s dreams.”
Doug Schulkind, WFMU
“It’s too cool for IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), too hot for trance, too formlessly simple for jazz and too formal and structured for improv. Maybe that’s why I enjoy it so much.”
Marc Medwin, Dusted Magazine (USA), on K-Space
“In a recent interview, Hyder remarked that shamanistic drumming has nothing to do with timekeeping; it is a means of accessing spiritual energy. Beyond all expectations, this recording actually touches that energy source – it is charged with visceral yet transcendent vibrations. Simply awesome.”
Bill Tilland, BBC on K-Space
You can also see details about my work as a Tuvan shaman on the All Shaman Services site.
You can e-mail me here
Ken Hyder’s JUKEBOX – and VIDEOS