Ariel Tessier - Drumming Mandala

Drawing as much on traditional African percussion ensembles as on contemporary, repetitive and minimalist music and, more broadly, on improvised music, this solo drum piece is above all conceived as a sensory and bodily experience, a plunge into a suspended, vibrating time, rich in textures and sounds, of intertwined notes. Through the repetition of a gesture, a world emerges, a chant, a trance, but this is constantly bound to transform and evolve through play with superimposed speeds, "morphing" and fractures.

This solo is an exploration of the principle of the Mandala applied to the drum kit: opening a world that unfolds with its own cohesion, a chaos that organises itself with its peripheral roughnesses and its centre, all gathered within a unifying principle, that of the circle. Seeking out and unfolding the infinite possibilities of the drum kit, too often perceived as a static accompanying instrument within a piece, in order to (re)discover its rhythmic power but also, and above all, its melodic, orchestral and textural potential: this is the challenge of this solo drum piece performed by drummer Ariel Tessier.

Ariel Tessier - Drums