On Friday June 20th, the Drum Travel crew launched the double CD in the colourful and peaceful environment of Dev-Aura, in the wonderful light-filled lecture room. To begin we were delighted to be joined by Ayako Tanaka, who played some beautiful flute with us. Read more →
It is very exciting that the Drum Travel project has reached its current state of completion. I collected the first double CDs last night, and a further batch will be ready today. These have been made with great care and expertise by Tom Askaroff at CMP studios. Sandeep`s design is looking brilliant, and universally the feedback to this has been awesome. Read more →
We were lucky to have a visit from Carolina Maggio. Sandeep had met her at a party in London, and had been very struck by her warm and gutsy singing voice, and also her playing of a small fretted instrument called charango. We were able to get to enjoy both of these talents during the sessions on Friday. Carolina is also an artist and sometimes combines painting with musical performances, something with which we may be able to collaborate ourselves in the future. Mostly how this impacts on how it is to work with her is a great and flowing creativity, making it very easy for new ideas to shape up, and thereby making it a lot of fun. Here you can see Carolina playing her charango
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On Thursday and Friday last week we held the recording sessions for the fourth phase of Drum Travel. This was very productive. On Thursday Sandeep did overdubs on shimedaiko, ghatam and bodhran and we got a got a new excellent groove going on the lower pitched ring drum he brought. We also straightened out quite a few details on some of the other tracks. Then on Thursday night, Sandeep joined me for a gig with Howlin` Blues at Chapter 12 winebar in Hailsham. It was fun to go into live playing mode after the focus and concentration in the studio.
“As a musical percussionist, James Asher achieves a rhythmical alchemy which is profound beyond words.”
Arthur Hull – America’s premier Drum Circle facilitator and Remo signature series drum designer.
