John McCowen is a composer/clarinetist focused on extending the possibilities of the clarinet. His work has been described by The New Yorker as “the sonic equivalent of microscopic life viewed on a slide” and by The Wire as "an astonishing demonstration of pure sound and human will". John's multiphonic approach embraces drones, difference tones, and beating harmonics as a means to squeeze out the compositional potential within an acoustic sound source.