RENT ROMUS is a force spanning over twenty years of original improvised music, D.I.Y. music production, performance, and curation. He is heavily involved in stretching past the confines of standard music forms performing his original compositions in a wide variety of musical settings as well as presenting and supporting the local artist community at large with his grass-root philanthropic vision for total artistic self expression and freedom from generic branding.

During the mid 80’s, Romus' sonic exploration sparked at the Stanford Jazz Workshop at Stanford University, where he was blessed with rare opportunities to experience and learn from Stan Getz (who was in his twilight years) as well as guitarist Bruce Forman, American icon Dizzy Gillespie, and beloved master drummer Eddie Moore.

In 1984 at the age of 16, Romus re-organized and directed NAYJE (the North Area Youth Jazz Ensemble), a seventeen piece big band featuring high school and college bay area musicians. In the fall of 1986, while attending the University of California at Santa Cruz, he formed the group Jazz on the Line which for eight years became the focus for his compositions and productions producing three albums for this group including his critically acclaimed CD Jazz on the Line with Chico Freeman.

In 1993 after a bloodless coup by members Jazz On the Line, The Lords of Outland were born as a loose collective rotating ensemble for Romus' sonic escapades. The Lords prototype was the RKZtet, which featured ex-ESP drummer James Zitro and former Sun Ra Arkestra cellist Kash Killion which later set the stage in 1994 when Romus renamed the group, The Lords of Outland.

The Lords then featuring bassist Vytas Nagisetty, drummer Andrew Borger (Tom Waits) and trumpet player Jason Olaine, released it's first album You'll Never Be The Same for New York based Jazzheads Records in 1995. Still beholden to the vapid decrepid ideals of the standard-jazz-mindset, Rent entered a group video to the then micro-fledgling BET Channel's National Network Show "Jazz Central". As Rent watched the judges sit and stare at the camera as they tried to say something "nice" about the Lords' version of Eric Dolphy's 'Out to Lunch' submitted alongside the smooth and silky Pat Matheny he knew he was meant to bludgeon the status quo.

That same time period 1995-96 Romus self-produced two overseas tour of Denmark which featured two of Copenhagen’s young improvisers pianist Jonas Müller who had moved the S.F. Bay Area later in the 90's, and drummer Stefan Pasborg who now enjoys world wide recognition in the jazz community in Europe.

Upon returning to Denmakr from the second tour he assisted guitarist Paris Slim produce his first major American blues release with guitarist Joe Lewis Walker and Sonny Rhodes.
In 1997 Romus had the honor of recording with tenor saxophonist John Tchicai with the Lords of Outland titled Adapt…or DIE! and was released at the end of 1997 on Jazzheads.

In 2001 Romus re-opened Edgetone Records where he released three CDs; Avatar In the Field, PKD Vortex, and Guinea Pig Live at the Hotel Utah that reflected his love for interweaving science fiction, horror literature, improvisation, Finno-Ugric traditions, socio-political themes, and the inspiration of Albert Ayler in his music. In 2003 he along side Ernesto Diaz-Infante founded The Abstractions, who released three recordings during their time together.

Since then Romus' ongoing free improvisational/experimental projects to showcase his compositions have included the Bloom Project with pianist Thollem Mcdonas and drummer Jon Brumit where they have released two CDs and toured through out the US Midwest.

The Lords' roster has changed numerous times, releasing albums with each incarnation more terrible then the last, wreaking havoc on the ears of unsuspecting victims happily chasing away the once plump jazz fans of days past. As the years sloshed ahead through a decade sonic conservatism Rent discovered he and the Lords had fallen into a realm known to some as "FreeJazz Black Metal". This back door alley sub-genre seems to have metamorphosed from the need of a new generation to navigate it's urge to play band instruments and still mosh in a complete abandon. This incubation and virulent growth of such a community has spurred Rent's most recent releases with the Lords named aptly Culture of Pain 2006 and You can sleep when you're dead! 2008 featuring his current line-up of the most sonically disturbed of sound artists CJ Borosque, Philip Everett, and Ray Schaeffer.

As a producer and artist business activist Rent Romus founded Edgetone Records a new music label since 1991. In his early days as a concert producer he was the Executive Director of Jazz in Flight in the late 90’s as well as the Director of Promotion for the SFAlt Festival 2002-2004. Starting in 2000 he founded Outsound.org under which he is the Executive Director and lead curator of The SIMM Music Series at the Studio 6 Musicians Union Hall, and the famous Luggage Store Gallery New Music Series in San Francisco. In 2002 he founded The Edgetone New Music Summit, a national experimental music festival held in the greater San Francisco Bay Area every summer. Romus also runs a new music distribution network for independent artist run record labels called UIRC (Ultra Independent Recording Coalition) currently available online as well as the Artistic Director of the Outsound Presents... Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.