David Grubbs, born in Louisville in 1967, is a guitarist, pianist, singer and composer whose career runs from teenage hardcore to the quietest of chamber music. He was a founding member of Squirrel Bait, Bastro and, with Jim O'Rourke, of Gastr del Sol, the group that in the 1990s joined post-rock, American folk guitar and electroacoustic composition; he also passed through Bitch Magnet, the Red Krayola, Palace and the Boxhead Ensemble. Since The Thicket (1998) his solo records and his collaborations with poets, visual artists and improvisers have kept the same commitment to forms that challenge both player and listener.