Biography
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Born
19 December 1977 (age 46)
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Born In
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States
Caural (born Zachary Mastoon) is an Oakland based multi-instrumentalist. Recording some of his first music on a Casio PT-80, drum set and guitar beginning at six years old with his best friend and neighbor Stuart Bogie, he went on to play punk-influenced jazz with Bogie and others in Transmission, then live hip-hop with schoolmates in a group which became the de facto backing band for Chicago emcee Diverse. However, having studied jazz improvisation with avant-garde giant Anthony Braxton, Javanese Gamelan aboard Semester At Sea, and experimental electronic music at New York University, Mastoon began fusing his disparate influences together quite literally in 1999 with what became his signature instrument: a Yamaha SU700.
From his debut release on NY boutique label Toshoklabs in 2001, Mastoon released a diverse and critically acclaimed catalog of original material and remixes for labels such as Chocolate Industries, Mush, Plug Research, Sound in Color and many others over the last fifteen years. Touring with then-labelmate Busdriver, Caural brought an energy to his live shows which resulted in bloodied fingers and knobs being torn off his machine, eschewing popular software to celebrate the sampler as an instrument versus merely a production tool.
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