Leaf have today shared a live video of Australian drummer, percussionist and composer Laurence Pike (PVT,Triosk and Szun Waves) performing Distant Early Warning, the title track of his solo debut album originally conceived as a technological and spiritual jazz suite for drums. The album features a series of solo performances for kit and sampler recorded live in a single day. “For a long time I’ve been feeling there’s a central part of my musical voice that didn’t have an outlet,” Pike says. “So this album is definitely a product of inner necessity.”
A sonic odyssey that creates its own space and weaves its own meanings.
The album studiously avoids any rationalisation afforded by post-production hindsight. Pike uses technology in what he describes as an “intuitive way”, building sound worlds to improvise within. “I create a patch of sounds that provide some sort of alternative dimension to the kit. Many of them are samples of the kit themselves. I just play with different ways to frame them and interact. I feel like my job is to get into a space where the music makes itself.”
Laurence Pike studied at Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music, under Australian jazz legend Mike Nock. An ongoing relationship has produced two critically acclaimed duo albums – Kindred (2012) and Beginning and End of Knowing (2015). Equally at home in the worlds of rock, electronica, jazz and improvised music, he continues to work with his internationally acclaimed electronic group PVT which has performed with the likes of Sigur Rós, Arctic Monkeys, Warpaint and Yellow Magic Orchestra. 2016 saw the release of Szun Waves’ debut album, At Sacred Walls, a collaboration with Luke Abbott on modular synthesiser and Portico Quartet’s Jack Wyllie on saxophone. Pike has performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and last year premiered his work for drums, electronics and dance with Bangarra Dance Theatre as part of the Supersense Festival in Melbourne. A former member of the seminal electronic/jazz trio Triosk, Pike is widely regarded as one of Australia’s finest musicians.
Distant Early Warning is available on LP/CD/download from Bandcamp and the Leaf shop.