Beth Custer

Primarily a clarinetist, Beth Custer is also a composer, performer, and teacher - having penned music for television, movies, theater, and dance. The long time San Francisco resident launched a solo career during the late '90s, but initially got her start playing with other outfits. Custer got her musical start in the earlier in the decade, when she joined the long-running Club Foot Orchestra, an experimental multi-member band that has been slugging it for several years already. Custer appeared on such Club Foot Orchestra releases as 1991's Metropolis, plus a pair of 1995 releases, Sherlock Jr. & Felix and Wild Beasts, Kidnapped, and More, during which she did double duty with another outfit, the improv-based Trance Mission. Originally formed in 1992 and co-founded along with didgeridoo player Stephen Kent (with Custer handling clarinet, trumpet, and some vocal duties), Trance Mission also features additional members Eda Maxyam (vocals) and Peter Valsamis (drums, percussion, electronics). Signed to the 'City of Tribes' label, the group issued several albums throughout the '90s, including such titles as 1994's Meanwhile and Trance Mission, 1996's Headlight, and 1999's A Day Out of Time. Custer then formed another project, Eighty Mile Beach, with producer Christian Jones. With Jones supplying beats, guitar, and bass and Custer playing clarinet, keyboards, and singing, the duo issued a pair of 12" singles, and a full-length CD, 1998's Inclement Weather. It was only a matter of time before Custer began issuing albums on her own, and by the late '90s, she was ready. 1996 saw the release of Custer's solo debut, The Shirt I Slept In, followed by 1999's In the Broken Fields Where I Lie, plus a pair in 2000 - Vinculum Symphony Live and Dona Luz 30 Besos.