Christina Carter
Biography
Christina Carter first joined Tom
Carter and Kyle Silfer in an unnamed
trio in 1991 that became a duo called
Charalambides. That group went on
to become a singular entity that has constantly defined itself by operating outside the
parameters of the music industry. Beginning with self-released cassettes, then moving on to
the Siltbreeze label in 1993, Charalambides garnered attention from those in the know with
their unique mix of noise, gospel, folk and blues.
Operating their own label, Wholly Other, Tom and Christina Carter have released music by themselves, Charalambides, friends' bands and collaborative efforts. Wholly Other utilizes short run CD-R releases to capture the spontaneity of live and improvised music-making, keeping inventory at a minimum and flexibility at a maximum.
As Christina told Word in April 2004; "We developed the belief that it is a good thing to know how to take care of things yourself, take initiative, know the whole process from beginning to end... In our minds the short runs weren't so short. When we were getting CDs and CDRs made for us by an outside manufacturing place we were making enough to sell through in a good amount of time. Then we could move on to the next release without having a bunch of extra copies sitting around."
Christina worked with Heather Leigh Murray in a duo called Scorces, and in 2000 Murray joined Charalambides for a tour and eventually a series of recordings that would culminate in the Joy Shapes album released by Kranky in spring 2004. Christina Carter worked on numerous solo recordings, using guitar and voice recorded in the simplest manner possible.
Her latest recording, Original Darkness, follows her Electrice album from late 2006 on Kranky as well as a split album with Pocahaunted from early in 2008.