Bell Drum (percussion sextet - from Between Zero and One)

One of the works/movements from the concert-length show "Between Zero and One" created in collaboration with New Zealand's Strike Percussion.

This piece was inspired by a chance experience of a busking performance by the Nelson-based bell drum maker Jim Wafer. I talked with Jim about the instruments and about the Strike show and we decided to commission him to make four drums for a performance by Strike on 12 October 2013.

There's more information and material at the Turnbull Library listing about this piece

These instruments are so beautiful I didn't need to do much, just create layers and textures.

I realise now Jim's belldrums were the pre-cursor to the now very popular (almost ubiquitous) hangdrum.

The SoundCloud audio below is a demo mockup I made for the group. It has episodes (and ends) with an amazing discovery we made when workshopping; one player holds a tom-tom at head level, and covers the hole (where the tom stand would enter) with their mouth, creating a vacuum. Another percussionist performs rolls on the drumhead as the first player breaths in and out - creating a rising and falling glissando, similar to a timpanist using the pedal. This was a very cool effect and we created textures of multiple drums being played this way, in the show. It has the added advantage of producing something visually striking in a live performance. The end of Bell Drum moves seamlessly into 'Africa' from the same show.

The show Between Zero and One landed strongly with audiences. I wrote several encores, to match the audiences' appetite. That's a good feeling. I decided to make a version of this track as an encore and to write myself a keyboard part to play. I've been wanting for decades to return to live performance, and was trying to create opportunities. Strike were very accommodating. I practiced my part to the nth degree and really new it. But live, I didn't have my own in-ear click and I could hardly hear the bell-drums at all when playing the synth line I'd rehearsed so diligently. A friend made a passing comment "oh, it sounded like you were freely improvising, independently of the group". That was the last time I joined Strike onstage and it set me back years in terms of confidence. But the slow game will get you there: Here I am performing with an orchestra and Arjuna Oakes (10 years later!); a song we wrote and arranged together: Safe Way

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Here's a playlist with the demos I created for most of the tracks....

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I don't have a complete list of the performances, but these are from the early days:

06 Sep 2013: Premiered at the Christchurch Arts Festival, Christchurch, New Zealand

10 Mar 2014: Performed by Strike Percussion Ensemble at the St James Theatre, in Wellington.

17 Oct 2014: Strike: Between Zero and One | Arts Festival Dunedin 2014

18 Oct 2014: Performed by Strike Percussion Ensemble at the Regent Theatre, in Dunedin.

07 Apr 2015: Q Theatre, Auckland Between Zero and One | Percussion and multimedia project

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