Drum Machines

This album includes two drum kit solos that feature innovative applications of technology which I greatly enjoyed learning and performing from 2020 to 2022. I am excited to be releasing these pieces as both an album and performance film, that were recorded, edited, and produced with a team of outstanding professionals.

I have always been fascinated by percussion and electronics, and I am fortunate to be able to combine these passions on a daily basis as a student of art and technology. La Rage and beat approach the electronic augmentation of a drum kit in different yet clever ways, which was challenging and enriching to my learning experience.

Learning this musical material and performing it across North America and in Sweden allowed me to deeply absorb the character of each piece. I have a huge passion for audiovisual recording arts, and wanted to capture and share it as an album as a performance movie with anyone who is curious!

Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (b. 1975) is an internationally renowned musician, composer, and performer who is involved in a variety of contemporary jazz and electroacoustic musical contexts. During his studies in England, Tremblay was inspired by Louis Hamelin’s book entitled La Rage. The book influenced the composition of this 50-minute solo also called La Rage: a reading of Louis Hamelin’s novel, for free jazz drummer, eight channel tape and real-time processing. The piece was premiered by his close friend, Stefan Schneider who was the drummer for the band [iks].

La rage (rage)
ravished land, expropriated for flying steel;
ravished people, castrated of their identity;
youth wasted in seduction and hiding;
intelligence betrayed by a culture of beauty;
cynical for survival.
La rage (rabies)
tiny germ, destructive incubation, death by the drop;
… explosion, a cyst bursts, the pus of hate flows.
Death for survival.

Sylvain Pohu (b. 1976) generated a clever conglomerate of electroacoustic glitch, free jazz, and drone metal as part of his feedback project. The project generated four compositions. One of the pieces, beat, was based on the concept of improvisation on structures. beat was created as a piece for digital percussion, sixxen, and interactive video. The piece was created in collaboration with the Sixtrum percussion ensemble and premiered in the Salle Claude Champagne in 2011. A decade later, Pohu collaborated with Martin Daigle to rearrange the piece for a solo drum kit performer.

To subject to repeated beatings, to strike against repeatedly and with force, to shape or break by repeated blows, to defeat or subdue, and many other meanings of the word beat are explored throughout the piece. Beyond this musical performance, beat includes performer-controlled visuals during live performance which can be seen in the short film version accessible online on Daigle’s channel.