From Spain to the United States. From total noise and ambiguity to aural ambient. Kevin Drumm is our new “guest” for this “podcast”.
Chicago + 90’s + The Art Ensemble Of Chicago + Free Improvisation = 20-year-old Kevin Drumm. He is originally from South Holland, Illinois, relocated to Chicago to work in the city’s Board of Trade. His music career began as a prepared guitar player (a guitar with its timbre altered by the placement of different objects on/or between the strings, also called tabletop guitar) by participating in diverse bands: Brise-Glace, an instrumental Avant-rock supergroup, by invitation of Jim O’Rourke, Gastr del Sol, another O’Rourke band and Ken Vandermark, an American jazz composer. But Kevin was more interested in laptop music, electroacoustic and modular-synthesis, so he came out with his debut album in 1997, Perdition Plastic. His work is also remembered by his duo album with Taku Sugimoto, a Japanese guitarist, Sonoris, and many other projects featuring Axel Dörner, Martin Tètreault, Ralf Wehowsky, Phill Niblock, Tony Conrad, MIMEO, Mats Gustafsson, John Butcher, and Thomas Ankersmit.
The Piece
Kevin has a very diverse work, going from the quieter to the loader. I selected a quieter and entering piece. It belongs to the 2009 single-tracked-album “Imperial Horizon” from Ground Fault Recordings. The name of the track, which differs from its album name, is called Just Lay Down And Forget It, where for me it is one of the best track names I’ve ever seen. It is direct and non-deviant from its content. Kevin is not trying to fool anyone. I indeed did what he asked for – I lay down in my bed and completely forgot where I was after 5 minutes into the track. I immediately was teleported to various emotional memories, that weren’t necessarily morbid, but I was transferred into this calm and soothing body of piece and freedom because of its vast emptiness. I imagined blank colors like tones of white and grey. I also picture some random places and structures. The peaceful faces and voices of beloved ones. The memory of touch. The memory of being young. It felt like the first bath, a baptism, a meditative restart.