Chris Pitsiokos is a New York-born, Berlin-based saxophonist, composer, improviser, writer and organizer. He has never been interested in genre, but his music has been variously described by others as noise, jazz, free jazz, musique concrete, improvised music, art rock, new music, sound art, brutal prog, electro-acoustic music, etc. If there is an abiding principle in his work, it is dialectic: by endlessly interrogating his artistic practices, choices, and ways of living, he is trying to get nowhere. And in a world where everywhere seems terrible, nowhere is where he wants to be. One can think of this as a kind of endless, disciplined searching, that Chris realized long ago was doomed to fail.

As a bandleader and soloist, he has toured throughout Asia, North and South America and Europe. His touring has taken him to major international festivals such as Sapporo International Arts Festival in Japan, Moers Festival in Germany, Jazz Jantar in Poland, Jazz Festival Lima in Peru, Wels Unlimited Music Festival in Austria, Jazz Festival Saalfelden in Austria, Meteo Mulhouse Festival in France, Jazz Cerkno in Slovenia, and the Observatory in Singapore. In New York, his music has been presented at Roulette Intermedium, ISSUE Project Room, and in a residency at the Stone. His writing has appeared in Arcana (edited by John Zorn), a Japanese-language book on Kaoru Abe, and in many articles in the now defunct Sound American, where Pitsiokos was on the editorial board. He is known for his solo saxophone performance, his audio-visual electro-acoustic piece “Irrational Rhythms and Shifting Poles”, his band CP Unit and his longstanding duo with Otomo Yoshihide. He has also performed with Axel Dörner, Keiji Haino, Mazen Kerbaj, Tony Buck, Wendy Eisenberg, Nate Wooley, Miya Masaoka, Paul Lytton, Peter Evans, Weasel Walter, Jaimie Branch, Chris Corsano, Oli Steidle, Elias Stemeseder, and Tyshawn Sorey.

He has recorded around 35 albums as a leader or co-leader and appears on many more.

As an organizer, Pitsiokos presented over 100 concerts independently in New York from 2013 until 2022 when he relocated to Berlin. In Berlin he co-curated the program at Sowieso in 2023 before starting a new venue, Richten25 and its parent-verein Odamusic e.V. in 2024. In 2025 he founded the Hard Listening Festival–a Festival for adventurous music/non-music in Berlin.