The British cellist, composer and founder of new music group Apartment House on John Cage and how visual art helped to open his mind

Anton Lukoszevieze

I’ve always doubted the supposed greatness of the instrumentalist

I take quite a practical approach to the cello and I don’t pay attention to a lot of the guff out there about things like tone and vibrato. Maybe it would be different if I were playing things like the Elgar Concerto but to be honest, it’d be more interesting to hear what that sounded like without vibrato, too. At the end of the day, the cello is a loudspeaker with four strings attached to it – it’s yours to do what you want with. I prepare my cello with pegs, clips and pieces of paper when I improvise, and using a curved (Bachbogen) bow I can play four-part chords. hat said, I’ve always doubted the supposed greatness of the instrumentalist and I’m a little reluctant to think of myself as a ‘cellist’ in the usual sense of the word.