Niko Tsonev

Niko Tsonev is a Bulgarian-born musician, producer, composer, mixing engineer, and arranger living in London, England. At age four, Tsonev played accordion; later he began playing guitar but only in his early teen years Tsonev began formally taking music theory and guitar lessons. Aged seventeen Niko received a scholarship from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA), however, Tsonev moved to London, England to study Music Production at Lewisham College. At that time (1996) Niko also joined a musician session agency as a freelance guitarist.

Niko Tsonev

Career

In younger years Niko drew his musical inspiration[1] from artists such as Steve Vai, Jimmy Herring and Scott Henderson. In the following years Tsonev performed and recorded as a solo artist and creative freelancer, and with diverse artists and producers, including Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), JJ Grey & Mofro, Digitonal, Aquilina and FabGrease Quentin). Stylistically flexible and diverse in urban and world music, Tsonev's guitar instrumentals encompass various musical forms, from instrumental fusion of Jazz and Blues, to Americana, Shred and Progressive Rock. Niko is also a film and TV composer,[2] known for his work on The Mortician (2011) directed by Gareth Maxwell Roberts, The Bridge (2005) directed by Richard Raymond, and Steven Wilson: Get All You Deserve (2012) directed by Lasse Hoile. Tsonev has performed in various countries and venues across the globe, from touring the United States, South America and Europe with Steven Wilson in 2012[3][4] to performing gigs with Lifesigns throughout Europe, and recording a DVD album Lifesigns - Live In London - Under The Bridge[5][6] Niko sources various equipment while in studio and onstage, including Suhr Guitars, Elixir Strings, Kemper Amps, TC Electronic, Wampler, Source Audio, Hughes & Kettner.[7]

Niko Tsonev was a member of Lifesigns, a British progressive rock band; with other notable band's members such as John Young (Bonnie Tyler, Scorpions, Greenslade, Qango, Asia) on keyboards & vocals, Jon Poole (ex-Cardiacs, Wildhearts, Dowling Poole) on bass & vocals, Martin "Frosty" Beedle (ex-Cutting Crew) on drums, percussion & vocals. Niko has been performing (on guitars & vocals) with Lifesigns between January 2013[8] and August 2016.

Awards

Discography

Tsonev's work includes albums both as a solo artist, and in collaboration with other musicians and bands.

Main Solo Releases
  • Black Feather (2008)
  • Banshees and Harpsichords (2013)
  • Moonparticle (2018)

Solo Singles & EPS
  • Supra - EP (2003)
  • It Sounds Prettier In French - EP (2004)
  • The Bridge (Orchestral Score) (2005)
  • The Death Orchestra - EP (2006)
  • Nix Hydra - EP (2011)

With Other Artists

With Lacryma Christi

  • Futura (Writing, Guitars, Production), 1996

With The Big Other

  • You're The Girl Of My Dreams -EP (Writing, Guitars, Production), 1998

With Cuthead / Dominik Rüegg

  • Walkabout (Guest Guitar), 2007

With Digitonal

  • Save Your Light For Darker Days (Acoustic Guitars), 2008

With Mr. Fastfinger

  • The Way of the Exploding Guitar (Guest Guitar), 2009

With Italee

  • Tight Suga (Guitar Solos), 2010

With Steven Wilson

  • Get All You Deserve (Live Blu-ray / DVD / CD), 2012
  • The Raven that Refused to Sing (Demo versions - Disc 2), 2013

With Lifesigns

  • Lifesigns Live in London - Under the Bridge (Live DVD / CD), 2015
  • Cardington (Guitars), 2017

With Asia

  • Asia: Symfonia - Live In Bulgaria 2013 (Live Blu-ray / DVD / CD) (Mixing Engineer), 2017

Labels
  • NTM
  • Elektrik Pyjamas
  • Stunted Records
  • Quatierfrancais
  • KScope
  • Esoteric Antenna
gollark: It wasn't that. It was some weird historical factors, and it being easy to write compilers for, and being tied to Unix.
gollark: Idea: go to the fairly recent past, bring a random laptop or something, wow people with your more powerful computer.
gollark: The programmers of the past were better than you, and made their programming languages from scratch on less power than random microcontrollers have.
gollark: With lots of tooling already.
gollark: On fast computers.

References
  1. Shammasian, Paul (6 March 2016). "Niko Tsonev". Medium. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  2. "Niko Tsonev", IMDb 12 December 2012. Retrieved on 13 April 2016."
  3. Work, Daniel (9 April 2012). "Steven Wilson - House of Blues, Dallas, TX". North Texas Live. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  4. Cleveland, Barry (12 September 2012). "Steven Wilson: Traveling Back to the Future in the Present Moment". Guitar Player Magazine. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  5. van Os van den Abeelen, Arne (18 March 2016). "Lifesigns - Live In London - Under The Bridge (Review)". Background Magazine. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  6. van Os van den Abeelen, Arne (21 August 2014). "Niko Tsonev van Steven Wilson en Lifesigns". Guitarist Magazine. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  7. "Niko Tsonev, Lifesigns". Hughes & Kettner Official Website. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  8. Gilbert, Joe (7 June 2015). "Asia keyboardist steps into the limelight at Trading Boundaries". East Grinstead Courier. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  9. Kilroy, Hannah May (27 January 2016). "Prog Reader's Poll 2015". East Grinstead Courier. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  10. "Best of 2016". Rock Society Magazine (213). Classic Rock Society. May 2016. pp. 34–35.
  11. Turmer, James R (March 2016). "Lifesigns... Signs of Life". Rock Society Magazine (212). Classic Rock Society. pp. 8–9.
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