Michael Allen Z Prime (f.k.a. Michael Prime)

Michael Prime presents himself as a sound ecologist, a title that describes his two passions: music and life. Active on the avant-garde music scene since 1985, he gained a solid reputation playing in electronic ensembles like Morphogenesis and Organum. Prime studied ecology and worked in that field for many years, conserving wildlife habitats in South London. This work led to the development of techniques used to translate environmental and organic sound sources into music. He co-founded the live electronic improvisation group Morphogenesis in 1985 with Roger Sutherland, Adam Bohman, Ron Briefel, Clive Hall, and Fred Sansom and released a string of records with them on Streamline, Paradigm, Vintage Electronic Records, and his own label Mycophile. In 1988, he started performing with the group Organum and released with them a 7" for Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier in 1989 and a string of CDs in the 1990s. He has collaborated with such avant-garde luminaries as Jim O'Rourke and Eddie Prevost and formed the group Negative Entropy in 1997 with Geert Feytons of Noise-Makers Fifes.