Convention-busting tech-jazz improv
Who He?
Laurence Pike comes with the highest musical credentials, having studied under jazz pianist Mike Nock at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and called on for collaborations with the likes Liars, DD Dumbo and Bill Callahan. As a member of Triosk, PVT and Szun Waves, the Australian drummer and composer has formed the percussive core to some of modern experimental music’s most vital releases. Specialising in improvisation, he pushes the boundaries of jazz, post-rock, ambient and electronica with a cosmic freedom.
Why Laurence Pike?
When Pike sat down at a drum kit and sampler for the hour-long, live, improvised session that formed last year’s debut solo album, ‘Distant Early Warning’, he created a mesmerising jam connecting traditional musicianship with electronic possibilities. The concept itself, freeing the playing from the confines of style and structure, cemented him as a modern master of minimalism. This was a record of slowly altering, cascading arpeggios, pulses and drones, all fighting for space with rumbling jazz drumming. He, quite rightly, called it “improvised solo techno spiritual-jazz odysseys for drums and sampler” on its release.
Tell Us More…
With a second stunning excursion into sonic freedom ‘Holy Spring’ coming on The Leaf Label imminently, Pike’s wonderful universe of sound is expanding. A starker exploration of the connection between the organic and the technological, it was recorded in just one day after a month-long period of developing samples to act as the core. Opener ‘Mystic Circles’ is an intoxicating piece of electronic space-jazz, that flings open the doors of perception wide open. High concepts abound in his compositional work, with the new album taking its inspiration from the pagan fertility myths from Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite Of Spring’.
‘Holy Spring’ is released by The Leaf Label
