Skip to main content

'Heartbeat Drumming' from Manuel Pasquinelli

Improvisation is often inspired by the feelings and emotions of the artist at the time of the performance, and that is more than especially true of the debut solo album from Swiss drummer Manuel Pasquinelli: 'Heartbeat Drumming' is all at the pace of his own heart, in real time.


There is something mesmerising and engaging about this album - one track lasting 37 minutes and all recorded in one take.

Swiss drummer Manuel Pasquinelli is widely recognised as the drummer for Sonar and their collaborations with David Torn. Over the past 12 years, he has also gained acclaim as a composer and bandleader with his own group, the AKKU Quintet, and for his work with duo Schrödinger’s Katze.

He says: “Playing the drums in this way is an intense, I’d even say transcendent experience. I take my heart as an unsteady natural metronome, while constantly adapting the pace of my drumming. Connected to my inner beat, I am simultaneously suspended between total freedom and total dependence at the same time, while the conscious and the subconscious ‘me’ work together."

The track is almost an answer to AI - the differences in tempo are heart-driven and intensely human.

Recorded in 37 minutes live in front of an audience at Mazzive Sound Studios in Bellmund, Switzerland, there are no edits or overdubbing, with real energy from the drummer who was connected to a heart-rate belt so that he could hear his own pulse clicking through his headphones.

There feels like a sense of urgency to this music, recorded in the summer of 2020, when the world was a different place: the release of this album in 2025 as we are all analysing the potential positives and negatives of AI seems particularly apt.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Maria Schneider: Live at The Barbican

Tonight’s performance in the main hall at London’s Barbican Centre confirmed Maria Schneider ’s position as one of the finest composers of our generation. Working with the sublime Oslo Jazz Ensemble (formerly Denada), Schneider presented a selection of tunes from her ‘Data Lords’ double album from 2020 and the result was simply extraordinary. Photo credit @Hilary Seabrook With a host of Grammy awards and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Data Lords , Schneider has proved her right to stand on the Barbican stage in front of one of the finest ensembles in the world. Her music allows every member to shine, individually and collectively. Sax players who double on clarinet, bass clarinet, flute and alto flute, trumpets and flugelhorns, an accordion and multiple percussion pieces wielded by the drummer collectively provide a range of timbres, textures and dynamics that thrilled this audience. The Data Lords  compositions celebrate everything that is wonderful about nature, as well as all ...

Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album -  Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man  brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...

The Darius Brubeck Quartet: Live at Jazz Cafe Posk

My first visit to Jazz Cafe Posk in London's Hammersmith coincided with the 60th anniversary of Posk - The Polish Social and Cultural Association - and the first performance in the club by pianist and composer Darius Brubeck. Photo credit @ Hilary Seabrook Darius was 10 when he joined his father on a historic tour of Poland. The Dave Brubeck Quartet toured Poland from 6 to 18 March 1958, just three years after the communist regime's ban on jazz was lifted. Without a doubt, this was the biggest jazz event in post-war Poland, with the archetypal and hugely successful outfit of Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello (drums). Sixty years later, in  2018, Darius took his own quartet - the same one he brought to Posk in May 2024 - to Poland for a significant tour, recorded and released as the Live in Poland album. Several of the tracks from this album were in the set at Posk and this quartet displayed in depth the benefits of playing to...