Corrigan, James

James Corrigan had spent his many years in NYC composing, recording, and performing a wide range of music, from free jazz and electronic improvisational explorations to generative minimalist pieces as well as art rock.  In the summer of 2018, he sought to make Drum Circle, a record that would joyfully and without prejudice, engage the many musical interests he had explored over a lifetime.  The record is inclusive and yet idiosyncratic.  Wanting Drum Circle to feel intuitive and natural, Corrigan gave himself a single month to complete the recording process. 
Drum Circle is a personal take on many different times, places, cultures, and traditions.  However, The title Drum Circle, also pokes fun at itself.   Drum Circles have the reputation of being performative approximations or even misunderstandings of music and their contexts.  They are real and yet they are flawed.  With Corrigan’s limited musical resources and instruments, he was gathering his own Drum Circle of one, an imperfect but hopefully engaging homage to the worlds that most fascinate him. 
Drum Circle belongs to a tradition of genre-less, personal, art music that can be found in the 70’s and 80’s in Europe (Fred Frith, Early Michael Nyman, Anthony Moore, John Surman, Roedelius/Moebius, Eno) as well as in NY (Peter Zummo, Arnold Dreyblatt, Craig Leon, Steve Reich, Julius Eastman, Meredith Monk, Arthur Russell).  Corrigan also discovered a road map when he picked up his first Made To Measure Volume , a series from Crammed Discs that he cherishes and views as a Utopia of musical democracy.  Drum Circle is out on Cimiotti Recordings