Born Stockholm, 1956; drums, percussion.
Raymond Strid started to play the drums relatively late. As he had become addicted to listening to music, sometimes spending eight ours a day in front of the stereo, he was encouraged to start playing himself (and to this day, he is still a dedicated listener and audiophile). With no musical background he thought the drums would be the easiest instrument to learn. He was particularly inspired by some of the European master drummers like Han Bennink, Paul Lytton and Tony Oxley.
Strid’s first concert was 30 September 1977 and he subsequently performed in a variety of local groups in Stockholm. In 1988 he formed the Swedish trio GUSH together with Mats Gustafsson and Sten Sandell. From that point work has also included a wide number of groupings and projects such as Guy/Gustafsson/Strid (Tarfala Trio), Crispell/Jormin/ Strid and the free jazz trio LSB (Fredrik Ljungkvist and Johan Berthling). The Electrics (Axel Dörner, Sture Ericson and Ingebrigt Flaten (Joe Williamson replacing Flaten in 2011)) was formed in 2000 and that same year he became a member of the Barry GuyNew Orchestra.
Since mid-2000 he has been collaborating with Joëlle Léandre in different settings, for example, with Canadian clarinetist François Houle and Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker. Trespass Trio (Martin Küchenand Per Zanussi) have been recording and touring since 2007 sometimes with special guest Joe McPhee. In 2008 the Swedish group, Kege Snö, was formed – Strid also working in duo with the quartet’s multi reed player, Roland Keiser – and he also became a member of the Yun Kan 10 (Fredrik Ljunkvist Tentett). In 2012, Strid became a member of 30-piece Fire! Orchestra. Other main collaborations, up to 2015, include: a Trio with John Russell and Mats Gustafsson, a trio with Henrik Nørstebø and Nina De Heney and the Feed Trio with Magnus Andersson, classical guitar and Mats Gustafsson playing music composed for the trio by contemporary composers.
Raymond Strid works constantly with occasional ad-hoc groups and temporary meetings. He has been touring and participating regularly at major improvisation festivals in Europe and North America. He also considers that, since around 2005, his playing moves stylistically between free improvisation and free jazz, sometimes mixing the two. Raymond Strid also teaches improvisation, methods and aesthetics.
http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mstrid.html
