Cynic bass player Sean Malone has died, aged 50. Cynic guitarist Paul Masvidal confirmed the news on his Facebook page earlier this morning. No cause of death had been reported at the time of writing.
"I learned today that Sean Malone has died," said Masvidal. "I am numb and grief stricken. He had a brilliant mind, a gracious heart and was one of the greatest musicians I’ve ever encountered. I know that this is a shocking loss for so many fans whose lives he touched with his artistry, as it is for me. Please keep him in your thoughts and listen to his playing to celebrate his life."
Malone appeared on every Cynic album. He also formed the progressive rock supergroup Gordian Knot which also featured Steve Hackett, Bill Bruford, Dream Theater's John Myung, Watchtower's Ron Jarzombek and Fates Warning's Jim Matheos. He also released one solo album, Cortlandt, in 1996 and also featured on several John Wesley albums.
Malone also authored four books on bass theory, as well as having papers on theory and music cognition published and gave presentations at conferences such as the Society for Music Theory, The International Conference of Music and Gesture, and The Glenn Gould Conference, and taught at the University of Central Missouri and Carnegie Mellon University as assistant professor of music theory.
Mike Portnoy, who played with Malone in OSI and the CXygnus & The Sea Monsters project, commented: "Totally shocked and sad to hear of Sean Malone’s passing... he was a tremendous bass and stick player that I had the pleasure of working with many times through the years. He was my Geddy in Cygnus & The Sea Monsters, he played on the first OSI album with me and we last toured together in 2014 when he was playing bass in John Wesley’s band opening for Flying Colors. This is just another shocking loss in 2020... sadly the same year we also lost Sean Reinert, his rhythm section partner in Cynic."
Cynic founder and drummer Sean Reinert died in January, aged 48.
