Rubble Drum by John Oliver

This music is dedicated to those suffering unjust war and crimes against humanity, but I do not expect them to listen to this broken music. Instead, the likely audience is those around the world who are not suffering, but feel outrage that these crimes continue, and they see that, if they continue, they will eventually be perpetuated upon anyone.

I barely remember creating this music in September 2022. I remember setting up a number of synthesizers, an acoustic drum trigger, and contact microphones, and beginning in-depth exploration. Then, when the moment was right, I recorded my improvisations. I create out of an abstract interest in rhythm, percussion, microsound, and the evolution of a soundscape over time. Only on listening back in the summer of 2024 to my microsound scrapings was I struck by their evocation of sifting through rubble. I thought: this music eerily evokes the horror of waking every morning to bombs and destruction and murder. The daily reminders of the war in Ukraine undoubtedly influenced the spirit of these recordings, made only seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine. One month after recording this music, a genocide began to emerge in Gaza after October 7.

What you hear may remind you of plastic or metal tubes, falling objects, flowing water, birds, sirens, whispering, and scratching, incessant scratching. And the drum may evoke the trek to the next refuge, or the desire to dance, despite the devastation.

All works were improvised in one take. No overdubs.
All proceeds will be donated to UNRWA.

electronic and soundscape music projects, ranging from classic musique concrète, to granular synthesis, and dark ambient. My instrumental and vocal music appears on several other labels and compilations. See my web site for details.

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