Tom Carter's electric guitar work weaves strands of melody, drone, fuzz, and charged silence into intricately detailed instant compositions. He lives in New York City.

Best known for his work with iconoclastic acid-folk improvisers Charalambides (which he co-founded with Christina Carter in 1991), Tom Carter has focused on solo performances and recordings since 2012. His 2015 double LP on Three Lobed Records Long Time Underground is the final installment of a trilogy begun in 2009 with The Dance From Which All Dances Come and continued with 2014's Numinal Entry. Long Time Underground was selected as the number-one experimental album of 2015 by The Out Door/ Pitchfork.

Tom Carter frequently collaborates with other musicians. His regular projects include a duo with No Neck Blues Band co-founder Pat Murano, free-rock improvisers Eleven Twenty-Nine (Carter, Marc Orleans, and Michael Evans), Spiderwebs (with Houston guitarist Sandy Ewen), Sarin Smoke (with Peter Swanson), Badgerlore (with Rob Fisk, Ben Chasny, and others), and various ensembles with Bay Area sound artist and composer Robert Horton. Other fellow travelers have included Gate, Loren Connors, Jandek, Bardo Pond, Tom Surgal, Thurston Moore, Steve Gunn, Dredd Foole, Pip Proud, Tim Barnes, Aaron Rosenblum, Dora Bleu, Sam Shalabi, Marcia Bassett, Christian Kiefer, Paul Flaherty, Tetuzi Akiyama, Shawn David McMillen, Inca Ore, Starving Weirdos, Ensemble Economique, Helena Espvall, Robert Millis, and Matt Valentine, among many others.