John Palmer’s life was never boring. Gripped by a continuous desire to explore the most fundamental issues of existence, at the age of 12 he began to question the significance of his social, spiritual, artistic and political concerns. The rebellion against the dogmatism and conformity of social and educational institutions of his time (he was born in 1959) soon led him to a turbulent youth and a succession of tragic events which dramatically shaped the course of his life in the years to come. Having lived in many different places and countries, his cultural identity was moulded within three main European traditions: the Anglo-Celtic, the Greek-Latin, and the Germanic. His several writings and poems are a vivid illustration of his cultural interests spanning from literature to history, art to philosophy, and, of course, music.

John Palmer took his first piano lessons at the age of six. However, he soon rejected traditional music teaching and began to pursue his own musical path. In the early seventies he began to compose and perform as a songwriter and keyboard player in what could be defined as experimental popular music idiom. By the late 70s he directed several groups of experimental and free jazz, touring mainly on mainland Europe. Having explored all the most crucial popular and jazz idioms throughout the seventies, in 1980 he felt impelled to deepen his musical interests and began again to train in the classical music tradition. As a pianist, he graduated from the conservatory of music at Lucerne, Switzerland, and at the same time he began to write music for solo instruments, orchestra, voice and chamber groups. He returned to London in 1990 where he continued to study composition at postgraduate level at Trinity College of Music and City University where he completed a PhD in 1994. Since the early nineties, he has extended his compositional interests with electronic resources. He was a long¸standing friend of John Cage whose sense of sonic adventure is very much alive in Palmer’s music. He also studied with Jonathan Harvey, Edison Denisov and Vinko Globokar. His music has been performed and broadcast worldwide and awarded several international prizes.


The compositional techniques of John Palmer vary from work to work. From the application of vigorous and precise methodologies, to the most spontaneous unfolding of musical ideas based on pure intuition; it is a distinctly individual style. The music in this CD represents two of the most exciting and inspiring aspects of his work: a passion for tone-colours and the subtlety of timbral transformations, and a stunning musical imagery.

more info: www.johnpalmer.org