Trey Gunn

Trey Gunn, a native Texan who now resides in Seattle, began his musical life at the age of 7 playing classical piano. His interest in music grew through various instruments: electric bass, electric and acoustic guitar, keyboards and the touch guitar. He completed a degree in classical music composition at the University of Oregon before moving to New York City where his professional life blossomed.

He has toured and recorded with Sunday All Over The World, Toni Childs, The Robert Fripp String Quintet, David Sylvian, Vernon Reid, Michael Brook, Eric Johnson, David Hykes of the Harmonic Choir and King Crimson.

In 1992 he was asked to join David Sylvian and Robert Fripp in a collaborative project that grew from a three-piece to a fully-fledged band, touring Japan and Europe in both configurations. The band released “The First Day” and a live album, “Damage”, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London. During this period Gunn also found time to record his first solo album “One Thousand Years” released on Discipline Records.

In 1994 he joined King Crimson. He has, since, participated in seventeen King Crimson CDs, two DVDs and hundreds of performances. Their latest recording, “The Power to Believe,” is out on Sanctuary Records. For his role in this configuration of the group (Belew, Fripp, Gunn and Mastelotto), Gunn has helped evolve a new and unique instrument. Built by Mark Warr of Warr Guitars, this ‘tapped’ instrument is a 10-string touch guitar with the range of a piano. It can be heard, in depth, on his 6 solo recordings.

In addition to helping run a collective music label based in Seattle called First World (FWD) and a multi-media production company (7 Directions), he is currently dividing his time between King Crimson, his solo work and establishing the groundwork for new multi-dimensional media projects. Please visit www.treygunn.com for more info.

Joe Mendelson

Growing up in upstate New York, Joe Mendelson studied classical piano, jazz keyboards and guitar. He began performing professionally at age 15, and at 17 moved to NYC to enter the cutting edge Music, Business and Technology program at NYU. Soon after arriving in New York, he began soaking up all of the myriad art and performance experiences it had to offer. He was fortunate enough to see seminal performances by artists Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson and The Residents, three artists whose use of theatrical elements in their performance would have a lasting impact on his work.

In 1986, he formed Fibre, an experimental music quartet. This group quickly became a staple of the thriving performance art scene, playing at such legendary venues as PS 122, the Knitting Factory, A Micah Bunker, and Space 2B. Each performance was unique -- utilizing props, costumes, and video to examine stories and historical events. In addition to their highly acclaimed albums, I Cried at the Fair and Sub Aquatic Memories, Fibre debuted Seat Of Dreams with renowned New York dance company Avila/Weeks.

Mendelson founded avante-pop band Rise Robots Rise in 1992. The Robots used as many as 6 different singers in one song, each playing a different role, or expressing a unique point of view. This band made two classic albums for TVT records, Rise Robots Rise and Spawn . In 1997, as part of his mission to find avenues for new kinds of performance, he became one of the founders of the now - legendary music venue, The Living Room. During this time period he also established Antenna Productions, a post-production studio for independent films, documentaries, television and countless musical recordings.

In 2000, he joined The Trey Gunn Band. Working together, Mendelson and Gunn created complex video compositions to accompany this challenging instrumental music. Using the quickly evolving technology of laptop computers, lightweight video projectors, and innovative video manipulation software, they developed a method of seamlessly integrating video into a performance and controlling it from the stage. It was during this period that they realized what both their paths had been leading toward all these years: a performance ensemble that could bring together all of their theatrical ideas, and use the latest technology to help them create a multi-media experience of tremendous power and impact. Thus, Quodia was born.