Whim Ensemble

“Stemming from free jazz and contemporary experimental music, our artistic worlds are fused together by bringing our experiences as composers and improvisers to the ensemble. We explore and create extended performance techniques to explore new textures and timbres. While playing our instruments beyond the “traditional” way, we connect our sound together like an extension of the other. The music we create comes from very abstract ideas, such as metaphors, up to very concrete concepts related to time, energy, and density. Inside these concepts, we explore repetition and variation as well as gestural and textural transformations.” 

Whim Ensemble – Ofer Pelz, Preston Beebe, Stéphane Diamantakiou

On the verge of composed and improvised music, Whim Ensemble (Ofer Pelz, prepared piano, Preston Beebe, percussion and since 2021 Stéphane Diamantakiou, double bass) creates percussive landscapes by inventing instrument modifications and techniques to build an unusually rich sound world since 2015. They place found objects on their instruments to explore complex timbres, textures, and harmonies. Inspired by electroacoustic music, they generate sound through motion to create musical gestures which resonate to sound as one. 

The ensemble has performed and broadcasted in Canada, the United States, France, and Israel. As a duo they have released two albums which were praised by several reviews. Their debut album Whim (2016) released by Kohlenstoff records, and the second album pre-fall (2019), was released by Ambiances Magnetiques. Their third album, TREES, brought Diamantakiou into the fold, and the project was released by PARMA recordings in 2023. From free jazz to contemporary experimental music, Whim Ensemble is a genre-bending group. Their experience as composers and improvisers are fused into an ensemble that seeks to spark imagination and curiosity.