Baxter, Sean

***This Australian avant garde percussionist’s long-standing preoccupation with extended technique and acoustically generated noise applied to the conventional drumkit in a freely improvised context has helped push the bounds of the acoustic drumkit’s sonic potential (alongside compatriots Robbie Avenaim, Tony Buck, Steve Heather, Joe Talia and Will Guthrie). SEAN BAXTER’s concise improvisations, performed with unconventional implements, extract unusual timbres from the drumkit. His vast and dense sonic worlds, created without overdubs or processing, allude to avant garde electronic music, Modernist chamber music in the style of Xenakis and Lachenmann, extreme noise and the maximalist spectrum of post-AMM free improv. On “Metal,” piercing untuned aluminium windchimes flail against the rims and membranes of the kit in a chaotic flurry, creating a barrage of stochastic rhythms and accidental harmonies, exploiting the high frequency ranges of metallic sound. “Flesh,” in complete contrast, employs the exclusive use of the body; fingers, hands, fists and elbows strike, coddle and pummel various components of the drumkit, coercing and coaxing more rounded, but equally uncompromising and slightly uncomfortable bottom-end sounds from the instrument.