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By Stef Gijssels
This overview has been simmering right here for some time, with the presumably too formidable aim to tell our readers on all new solo percussion albums, whereas on the identical time taking the time to hearken to all of them, and do another listening in between. We not too long ago reviewed Devin Grey’s “Most Undoubtedly“, and that is the one solo percussion album we reviewed for fairly some time. As could be anticipated, we’ve got the complete spectrum of solo percussion albums – from jazz to trendy music, from drums to melodic percussion, from acoustic to electronically altered percussion. Listening to solo percussion albums requires some particular consideration and a spotlight span as nicely.
Andrew Cyrille – Music Supply/Percussion (Intakt, 2023)
Cyrille emphasises the melodic facet of his artwork. This isn’t at all times apparent to listen to at first pay attention, however sustain the trouble and hold listening. There are moments of enjoyable, of small side-stories, with extra dramatic excursions and a beautiful sense of fluidity. No surprise he is nonetheless so good after so many a long time of musicianship. Magic at work!
I feel that no different drummer options in so lots of our critiques as Hamid Drake, and presumably rightly so (I attempted to rely them, then gave up). All of us like his technical abilities, his unimaginable sense of rhythm – why does his drums at all times appears to bounce? – his spirituality and particularly his understanding of different musicians. Now, for the primary time in his lengthy profession, he gives us a solo percussion album, with all items devoted to a few of his favorite artists: “A dedication in spirit to all those that have influenced, helped, opened, nurtured, proven love for, and cared for me alongside the best way.”
The liner notes point out that John Corbett “started petitioning Drake to document an unaccompanied session twenty years in the past“, which – because of the pandemic – began to get actual kind. A ready studio recording didn’t fulfill the drummer, and in 2021 he tried once more, now with none preparation, letting the music stream.
Clearly, it may solely produce what’s already there, within the unimaginable psychological observe document of rhythms and methods and unfastened concepts that get form right here within the artistic second of performing. At occasions I needed to chuckle out loud simply due to the unimaginable enjoyable of listening to his enjoying. And it is not that his music is ‘enjoyable’: it is simply so extremely complicated, intricate, compelling and performed with such ease and spontaneity. I do not forget that Ken Vandermark mentions within the liner notes to one in every of their collaborative albums (I feel ‘Spaceways Inc – Model Soul‘), that he requested Drake to play a reggae rhythm, upon which Drake replied “which one?” of the few dozen that he knew. That is what you get right here too. A jubilant demonstration of percussive delight.
Hear and obtain from Bandcamp.
Sofia Borges – Journeys & Findings (4DA Data, 2022)
Sofia Borges is a Portuguese percussionist residing in Berlin, who considers herself a sound artist, equally snug in free improvisation, jazz, trendy music as in theatre and dance.
She performs on percussion, drums, amplified objects, toys, discipline recording and electronics. The benefit of the size of the compositions is the chance to develop the music, to make it evolve and progress like on a musical journey, and the number of devices permit her to create encounters, surprises, adjustments and twists on the trail she has taken with the composition.
Particularly on the second observe, the percussive sound is so electronically altered that the primary sound turns into noise, and discipline recordings and precise efficiency merge right into a broader sonic panorama.
Her artwork turns into much more uncommon on the second CD, on which toys – sounding like chimes or little bells – are like recent rain drops on a darkish highway. The music is dense, fascinating to observe and to submerge your self in.
That is as far-off from jazz as attainable – excluding the improvisation – however price listening to. You might name her a artistic spontaneous noisemaker. She generates her personal universe, along with her personal musical imaginative and prescient and voice, and I can solely advocate it.
Ramon Prats – Solot (Sirulita, 2023)
We all know Ramon Prats primarily from his collaborations with Spanish free improv luminaries corresponding to Agustí Fernández and Albert Cirera or European ones corresponding to Axel Dörner.
Hear and obtain from Bandcamp.
Vasco Trilla – A Constellation of Anomaly (Thanatosis, 2023)
The liner notes specify: “Russian flat bells bowed and performed with vibrating objects, a timpani stuffed with wind-up music packing containers and spiced up by a transducer speaker, an outdated zither hit as a drum with two snare drums as resonators, Iranian spherical bells combined with gamelan strips, styrofoam and triangles….“. This intro simply to offer you an thought on what to anticipate from Vasco Trilla’s artistic exploration of percussive sounds and prospects. Like no different percussionist, he understands the problem to unleash the narrative energy of his instruments, as an alternative of simply being a subservient rhythmic indicator.
Trilla is an skilled musical explorer, who returns from his lengthy journey within the broad universe of sound, to inform us the tales of every thing he encountered, issues we’ve got by no means heard of, and which he’s desirous to share with us, and that we’re listening to, stuffed with surprise and anticipation for what’s coming.
Hear and obtain from Bandcamp.
Taiko Saito – Tears Of A Cloud (Bother In The East, 2023)
Taiko Saito performs marimba and vibraphone. Identified from her current collaboration with Satoko Fujii on “Futari” (2020). Each devices permit for melodies and harmonic improvement, in distinction with drums. This makes the album extra accessible by definition, but Saito’s enjoying can be glorious: technically robust, musically artistic, stuffed with variation of aesthetic magnificence, but additionally unassuming and humble. The music dominates, not the pyrotechnics.
Martin Daigle – Drum Machines (Ravello, 2023)
Martin Daigle is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist concerned in audio-visual and electro-acoustic artwork creation, efficiency, and analysis. On this album he performs two compositions, one from Pierre Alexandre Tremblay and one from Sylvain Pohu. The drum sounds are all electronically modified to design sonic landscapes. The primary composition, ‘La Rage‘, is damaged down into thirty small segments, every with their very own character and mode of supply, leading to a suite-like construction, and with drums which can be typically performed in an easy acoustic mode, though you by no means understand how the sounds might be altered subsequent. The second composition is extra linear, slowly creating as a extra panoramic soundscape.
Hear and obtain from the label.
Yorgos Dimitriadis – 14 20 22 (Bother In The East Data, 2023)
You may recognize the artist for his singular imaginative and prescient and the coherence of the album.
Vasco Trilla & Ra Kalam Bob Moses – Singing Icons (Astral Spirits, 2023)
Probably not a solo percussion album, however a duo percussion album by two grasp percussionists, Vasco Trilla and Ra Kalam Bob Moses. Or let me appropriate this too. Each musicians created a solo album – Trilla in Barcelona, Ra Kalam Bob Moses in Boston – throughout the pandemic, which they then polished and refined into one single album.
Trilla performs drums, timpani, flat bells, clock chimes, vibrators, magnetic tape and diverse devices, and Moses drums, bass, native flute, congas, dumbek, melodica, vocals and metallic devices.
They deal with us to sixteen compositions/improvisations, greater than 85 minutes lengthy, that generate lengthy drone-like soundscapes, dense and intense, richly ornated with percussive results and dramatic cymbals. Fortunately, some tracks have recognisable and excessive energy drumming, corresponding to “Common Bounce“, whereas others, corresponding to “Whales Sluggish Dancing” are on the other facet of the spectrum.
Not for the faint of coronary heart, however a worthwhile journey.
Hear and obtain from Bandcamp.
This I like. We reviewed Sardinian percussionists Giacomo Salis and Paolo Sanna solely as soon as thus far, with their collaboration with Jeph Jerman on “Kio Ge“. I feel they should have launched over a dozen albums collectively, as if they’re inseparable.
Each musicians collected fifteen totally different sorts of Sardinian cow bells, solely to research all of the attainable sounds they might get out of them. This may increasingly sound like a purely experimental endeavour, however fortunately they use their findings to create music that may stand by itself, with sounds that develop, intensify, change into denser or extra light-textured, that stretch into drone-like sounds, or in any other case crackle and sparkle. The entire albums is simply twenty-four minutes lengthy.
Hear and obtain from Bandcamp.
Denis Fournier – Je Suis Caché Sous Ma Peau (Vent du Sud, 2023)
We all know French drummer Denis Fournier from his collaborations on The Brigde Session’s “Escape Lane” and his collaboration with JC Jones on “No matter It Takes To Make A Sound“. His earlier solo album “La Voix Des Tambours / The Voices Of The Drums” already dates from 2015.
On this album he brings 13 items, improvised and composed, of simple acoustic drumming. There are items the place he begins fairly merely, however then he begins including beats, shifting the rhythms and the accentuation, till you have misplaced the technicality of what he does, solely to admire the sounds he produces. On some tracks he begins studying poetry, within the sort of priestly declamation that I’ve change into allergic to, however I do know some individuals like this, so everybody his or her selection. At different occasions (“Je sais que la paix n’existe pas”) he sings , like a tribal incantation, which I nonetheless like extra, however might additionally do with out. He additionally performs piano on two quick items.
In all honesty, he’s at his greatest when he is simply drumming, creative, wealthy, unassuming.
The CD additionally comes with a DVD filmed by a crew who adopted him for 2 years from the method of creation until the recording of the album.
Hear and obtain from Bandcamp.
Justin DeHart – Ring (Rattle Data, 2023)
On “Ring“, American percussionist Justin DeHart presents the entire solo percussion works of John Bergamo, a contemporary classical composer and his mentor. He performs on vibraphone, marimba, timpani, drums and different percussion devices, which ends up in an important selection within the total sound. The compositions themselves fluctuate from the extraordinarily quick – 24 seconds – to 13 minutes.
Contemplating that that is additionally not my most popular style, the music is severe, cerebral, stuffed with drama and with little to get pleasure from. That’s presumably extra the results of the compositions than due to the standard supply by DeHart.
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