Kevin Drumm is an experimental musician based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Emerging from the city’s improvised music scene, in the 1990s he became one the world’s pre-eminent prepared guitar players. Years active from 1991.
Drumm’s work expanded to include electroacoustic compositions and live electronic music made with laptop computers and analog modular synthesizers. He has collaborated with many artists working in similar fields, including Japanese guitarist Taku Sugimoto, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jim O’Rourke, and many European improvisers such as Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and German trumpeter Axel Dörner. He has also worked with the artist group Simparch, composing a piece for their installation Spec, shown at Documenta XI in Kassel, Germany and at the Renaissance Society in Chicago. Drumm has also worked with saxophonist Ken Vandermark’s Territory Band, which brings together American and Eurpoean players who work in both jazz and free improvisation.
Drumm’s work draws upon musique concrete, electronic sound, improvisation, heavy metal, and noise music, and has proved difficult to categorize. His solo and collaborative work ranges from challenging improvisations, ambient textures, and blistering walls of sound. Musical influences include Iron Maiden, Ralf Wehowsky, and The New Blockaders. |
