A major figure in New York City's avant-garde community since the '70s, Elliott Sharp is a composer and instrumentalist whose work runs the gamut from experimental and contemporary classical pieces to blues, noise rock, and electronic music. The bulk (over 100 albums among his various projects) and diversity of his recorded catalog defies concise description, but as a composer and instrumentalist, Sharp is unconcerned with melody and instead values dynamics and atmospheres. He uses sounds both ambient and dissonant, organic and electronic, to create tonal landscapes that often speak to chaos and unease, albeit in ways that are sometimes striking in their curious beauty. Among his many, many recordings, some of the standouts include 1986's Fractal (featuring compositions for percussion, trombones, and homemade instruments), 1989's Hammer, Anvil, Stirrup (a collection of string quartet pieces), 1994's Terraplane (a blend of blues and avant-garde), and 2005's film score Commune.