About
Tristan Kasten-Krause is a bassist and composer living in Brooklyn, New York whose work enlarges the minutiae of close tones and subtle gestures. As a bassist he has been credited with lending his “low-end authority to vital New York institutions” (the New Yorker) and praised for his “heavenly” (the Guardian) original compositions. His work exploring duration and expanded time has led to multiple sets on the Hudson Basilica’s 24 Hour Drone festival, performances of cathartic, hour-long compositions with experimental black metal band Scarcity, and the premiere of the marathon 6-hour opera, Stranger Love, for the LA Phil.
Tristan has performed on Broadway in Gypsy with Audra McDonald (2025), Justin Peck’s Illinoise (2024) and Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! (2019-2020), at the Whitney Biennial, The Moab Music Festival, Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival, and on television in Netflix’s The Witcher, PBS’s Frontline and Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle.
Over the last decade Tristan has worked with forward-thinking artists such as Sigur Ros, Alvin Lucier, Sarah Hennies, Caroline Shaw, David Lang, LEYA and Steve Reich. He has served as bassist in many of New York’s preeminent contemporary ensembles including Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink Large Ensemble, Argento New Music, Ensemble Signal and Contemporaneous.
As a composer Tristan’s music has been showcased at Issue Project Room, The Stone at The New School, The Hudson Basilica and the Grey Sound series at the University of Chicago. Most recently he has been the recipient of a 2024 Copland Fund for his work with the Dave’s Waves House Band (David First, Jessica Pavone, Erin Rogers), a 2025 NYSCA fund for his work with Sarah Hennies, and is a 2025 artist in residence at both the Wassaic Project and EMPAC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Tristan’s debut album of original compositions, 2021’s Potential Landscapes, features performances by soloists Lisel, Matt Evans, Jayson Gerycz and Brendon Randall-Myers, that have been elongated, warped and extended to create “beautiful, unearthly soundscapes”(WNYC). His upcoming LP, The Quiet Sun with percussionist and composer Sarah Hennies, is out May 2nd on Dinzu Artefacts.
Tristan has worked & performed with Sigur Ros, Caroline Shaw, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Sarah Hennies, Jessica Pavone, Steve Reich, David First, Henry Threadgil, The Arditti Quartet, Howard Shore
He has been featured on Gypsy, llinoise and Oklahoma! on Broadway, Netflix’s The Witcher, The Moab Music Festival, The Lincoln Center Festival, Hudson Basilica’s 24 Hour Drone Festival, Amazon’s Mozart in The Jungle
He has performed with ensembles such as Talea Ensemble, The Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ensemble Signal, Argento New Music, Wet Ink, Contemporaneous, Wordless Music Orchestra