Originally formed in the late 1990s by two students from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, Alarm Will Sound is a 20 piece chamber orchestra dedicated to the performance of newly composed contemporary classical music. Ever since their initial formation in 1991, jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood (MMW) has been synonym with groove. […]
drums
Anouar Brahem: Blue Maqams
The fear of repetition is probably what underpins Anouar Brahem’s entire recording career. “C’est ma hantise” (It’s my worst nightmare) said the Tunisian-born oud player in a recent interview. Since his début for the Munich-based ECM record label in 1991, the musician has performed in solo or shared the studio with a different formation on every […]
Khruangbin: Con Todo El Mundo
“Funky drums, dub bass, melodic guitar, those are the only rules.” Hailing from Houston, Texas and comprised of Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums, Laura Lee on bass and Mark Speer on guitar, Khruangbin is one of the most exciting instrumental three piece (with the odd vocals thrown in) to emerge in recent years. The band […]
This is How we Fly: Foreign Fields
Formed in 2010 and featuring The Gloaming‘s Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh (Hardanger d’Amore), Seán Mac Erlaine (clarinets & electronics), Nic Gareiss (percussive dance) and Petter Berndalen (drums), This is How We Fly is a contemporary folk group sometimes venturing into jazz and electronica whose centre of gravity lies somewhere between Ireland, the United States and Sweden. […]
Midori Takada: Through the Looking Glass
Born in 1951 in Tokyo, Midori Takada is a classically-trained composer and percussionist who was also influenced early on by free jazz, ambient and experimental music. The artist studied western minimalism while exploring African percussion traditions with musicians from Ghana, Senegal and Burkina Faso as well as Asian music traditions such as Bali’s Gamelan music […]
Hidden Orchestra: Archipelago
Traditional jazz drummers are usually only given a few bars to shine, and consequently these short solos are bursting with brilliant ideas and glimpses of pure rhythmic feel. I began to isolate and reprogram fragments of these rhythmic gems […] read the cover notes to Hidden Orchestra’s first record Night Walks (2010) by multi-instrumentalist, composer […]
