David Cross

David Cross played violin in King Crimson between 1972 and 1974 before establishing a solo path through the David Cross Band, whose instrumentation combined violin with bass, keyboards, drums, and saxophones. Born in Turnchapel, England, close to Plymouth, he assembled the improvisational rock outfit Ascend after departing King Crimson and devoted much of the 1970s and 1980s to writing music and collaborating with various theater ensembles. His debut solo album, Memos from Purgatory, appeared in 1989 and was subsequently adapted for the stage by Cross himself.

Working with the David Cross Band, he alternated between spontaneous improvisations and more structured compositions whose overall pace was slower than that of 1970s King Crimson; melodic fragments and thematic ideas surfaced abruptly only to vanish moments later, prompting some listeners to describe the results as unfinished. Exiles, issued in 1998, shifted toward conventional song forms and included contributions from former Crimson members Robert Fripp, Peter Hammill, John Wetton, and Peter Sinfield. Cross founded the label Noisy Records the following year.