Chris Abrahams

Christopher Robert Lionel Abrahams (born 9 April 1961) is a New Zealand pianist, best known for his jazz work. Abrahams has been a member of the Benders, Laughing Clowns, and The Necks. He has recorded several solo albums, as well as collaborations with Melanie Oxley from the Sparklers. Abrahams has also been a session musician on albums for artists such as The Church, The Whitlams, Midnight Oil, Wendy Matthews, Skunkhour and Silverchair.Chris Abrahams produced and arranged the music for the Australian film "The Tender Hook" which was released in 2008. In 2008, Chris Abrahams' work on the film's soundtrack was nominated for the "Best Original Music Score" AFI Award.Some of Abrahams music is experimental in nature—The Necks are an improvisational trio, and Abraham's performance at the Room40 Tenth Anniversary in London was labelled "ambient", "free-jazz" and "industrial noise" by (UK) Financial Times reviewer, Mike Hobart. Chris Reid from RealTime Arts Magazine wrote of his Germ Studies collaboration with Clare Cooper, an organiser of the NOWnow Festival who played the Chinese zither on the album, that "it represents an extensive investigation into the endless range of sounds that can be created by combining the venerable DX7 synthesiser and the even more venerable Chinese zither, the guzheng [...] a deep exploration of musical language".