Solo marimba somewhere between Glen Gould and Keith Jarrett. Check out the CD page. There are different types of spirals. The helix represents visually one of the ways the songs evolve. There are repeated patterns, which could be the individual circles of the helix, yet they move forward and change slowly, kneading the palpability of time. Sometimes they are not exact patterns, but self similar groups, like different leaves on a tree, or the rush of water over stone.
In the music of Spiral Marimba, the variations amidst the patterns magnify the ears’ concentration. The short motives, whether based on sticking, rhythm, harmony or melody, immediately build a strong unit, to which one can add or subtract different spices. With roots in minimal music, classic, jazz and rock, Spiral Marimba weaves patterns together with borders of improvisation.
The music is is Internal combustion. Internal seasons. Internal spring. Internal space. Sidespace. Stasis. Substasis. Prestate. Innerstate. Innerception. Innersense. Internal gravity.

I perform 4 of Pierluigi Billone's percussion solos. 3 of them are on the Mani CD.

Beautiful solo work by Tom Johnson. Nine Bells is a classic piece of his in which geometry, sound and movement melt together. The nine bell plates are set up two meters from each other in a big square with three rows of three bells each. The performer walks or runs (the sound of the footsteps is also important) in between them in different geometrical patterns and plays the ensuing melodies. The audience sees and hears the patterns, some of which are like an Asian sword duel, a fast waltz, a funeral march or a starry night. My copper bell plates spin and reflect light when hit, giving an added visual and sound level to the performance. The piece is about 55 minutes.

For Peter Ablinger’s work, water drops fall from sponges onto eight pitched glass tubes which are amplified. The sponges are hung up in four different patterns; low to high, middle to extremes, extremes to middle and high to low. Different melodies develop through the dripping rhythms. With my special lighting, the drops make forms in the air which sound when they fall on the tubes. It is like a mini waterfall in slow motion. The piece, around 25 minutes, brings together nature, chance, technique, and the human touch in an organic, meditative music.

2 pianos 2 percussion and any variation thereof plus extra guests sometimes. Check out the Berlin PianoPercussion website for upcoming concerts

Check out the CD page to listen firsthand, or read first...

Even check out Train Train on YouTube.

The Diatribes, a Berlin-based folk rock trio, were born in the late 1990s of the collaboration between Landis MacKellar (guitar, harmonica, vocals) from the 1980s New York Fast Folk crowd and Steve Ney (bass), a survivor of the West Berlin indie scene. Adam Weisman, a prominent New Music percussionist and presumptively the only rock drummer to have played under Leonard Bernstein and Sir George Solti as well as with Lou Reed and Frank Zappa, was the final ingredient.

Their material, which ranges from hard core to lounge jazz with truck driving music and historical ballads along the way, boils down to a profound dismissal of human perfectibility. Among the Diatribes standards on this new compilation of their last five years’ worth of studio work in Berlin are crowd faves such as “The Belle of Beirut” (about a terrorist bombing), “Betrayed, Deceived, and Confused” (a samba), “Blood (the Murderer’s Song),” and the least convincing paean to intimacy ever written, “What a Great Love We’ve Got.

Their music sounds like... a rockier version of Lou Reed, a heavier Bob Dylan, some Kings of Leon, modern troubador...

Led by Reuf Sipovic on guitar and vocals, Zeljka Antelj lead vocals and me on percussion, this is the soul of Sevdah music, which is bosnian, macedonian folk music. Check out the website or the youtube video: Snijeg Pade

I have done the music for 3 Video Room Installations from Valerie Schaller. The following is a short documentation video of the Heart Filling Station in the New York Festival of Light.