Maelström Percussion Ensemble

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Maelström Percussion Ensemble is a percussion ensemble that focuses on the repertoire of modern music. Nothing was found in our sources about its founding or its membership, so what follows is only what the albums show.

Music and breakthrough

Three recordings are known: Imaginary Landscapes from 1996, Labrynth from 2000 and Pika-Don from 2004. The first title refers to John Cage's Imaginary Landscapes series, written for percussion and electronics. That fits a group that feels at home in the experimental classical music of the twentieth century, in which percussion takes a leading role of its own. An ensemble of percussionists sounds different from an orchestra: there are no long melodic lines, but sound, rhythm, silence and colour. Marimbas, drums, cymbals, gongs and unusual objects together form a palette that is above all about texture.

Influence

Such ensembles are important for pop history because they brought percussion out of the background. Rock drummers and producers of electronic music found in the work of Cage and his contemporaries ideas about sound as material.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1996Imaginary Landscapes
• 2000Labrynth
• 2004Pika‐Don