Kraus (musician)

Kraus (also known as Pat Kraus, formerly known as Prince Kraus) is a New Zealand experimental musician and composer. The New Zealand Listener called him "a national treasure" and "one of the most quietly important and interesting people making music in New Zealand". 
His music crosses the boundaries of electronic music, post-rock, no wave, space folk, noise pop, punk rock and martian stomp.
Work.
Kraus has stated that he makes music for freaks, outsiders, losers and weirdos. Most of his music is released under a Creative Commons license with a non-commercial clause, consistent with his communist ideology.
He is influenced by medieval music, renaissance music, traditional Japanese music, psychedelic music and electronic music.
Kraus's work has been compared to Raymond Scott, Norman Mclaren, Moondog, Doctor Who, Sun Ra, Amps for Christ, Joe Meek, the Shaggs, John Frusciante, Pumice, Bruce Haack, Tangerine Dream, Flower Travellin' Band, Can, Kraftwerk, Goblin, Throbbing Gristle, Brian Eno, The Residents, Randy Holden, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jean Michel Jarre, Peaking Lights, Emily Dickinson, Tod Dockstader, Marvin the Martian, Maureen Tucker, Men's Recovery Project, Captain Beefheart and Royal Trux.
Kraus started performing live in late 2013 with a revolving cast of supporting musicians, including Stefan Neville (of Pumice and the Five Satans), Angeline Chirnside (of Currer Bells and It Hurts), Claire Mahoney, Nell Thomas, Dan Beban, artist Bek Coogan, Reuben Derrick, Sean Norling, Alex Brown, Gary War, Marijn Verbiesen, composer and pianist Hermione Johnson, and the writer Maryann Savage.
In 2014 Kraus was awarded the Audio Foundation Winter Residency.
The name Kraus was partly inspired by Dagmar Krause and Inga Swenson's character on Benson.
Other activities.
Kraus was a founding member of the Futurians and has played in the Aesthetics and the Murdering Monsters. He currently records and performs in Pouffe (with Matt Plunkett of The Trendees), the Maltese Falcons (with Ducklingmonster Futurian of It Hurts, Stefan Neville of Pumice, and Sean O'Reilly of SF), Olympus (with Stefan Neville), Magic Mountain, The Gaze, and various ad-hoc improvised ensembles.
He hosts a fortnightly radio show, and builds his own synthesisers and guitar pedals which are used by many New Zealand bands including It Hurts. He has been instrumental in setting up and curating the Musical Electronics Library and has been running synth-building workshops around New Zealand.