Disruption! The Voice of Drums

featuring Simon Barker and Chloe Kim

“…should be brought to international festival stages as soon as possible in order to expose as many people as possible to experience their clear power.” ★★★★★ Jan Kobrzinowski / Jazzthetik magazine

“Ground-breaking in concept and monumental in scale… It’s impossible to convey the breadth of this musical experience in a few words.” Ausjazz.net

Jeremy Rose and the 8-piece Earshift Orchestra bring a thrilling tribute to the timeless, visceral and disruptive power of the drum - Disruption! The Voice of Drums, featuring extraordinary drum virtuosi Simon Barker and Chloe Kim. This major work offers an opportunity to reflect on the current disruptive challenges we face, with bush fires, a global pandemic, civil unrest and a growing ecological disaster.

Alongside the voice, the drum is the most elemental form of human expression. From prehistory to the present we have used drums to conjure spirits, create ecstatic states of mind, bring communities together and put fear into the hearts of enemies. “I have always been fascinated by the power of drums,” explains Jeremy. “Drums can create ecstatic states of mind and alter our brain waves.” Drums have been used in ancient rituals, religious ceremonies and to instil discipline in the military. More recently, drums have been the élan vital of music whose purpose is to disrupt, featured in protest songs across the world from Hong Kong, to Russia and the United States.

Versed in jazz, drummer Simon Barker has spent years investigating traditional music from Asia and the Pacific. His collaboration with Korean Pan Sori singer Bae Il Dong and trumpeter Scott Tinkler is internationally recognised. Another drummer has emerged in recent years that has been one of the first to embrace Simon’s ideas whilst creating her own distinctive voice - Korean-born Chloe Kim, finding a musical path of discovery of rock, hip-hop and jazz through her Korean-informed approach.

“In searching for material to draw upon for a possible collaboration between the three of us,” explains Jeremy, “I turned to their respective solo drum music to arrange music for; Chloe’s Right Turn, and Simon’s Urgency! (Vol.1 & Vol. 2), On Running, 1 & 2, amongst others.” This body of work highlights their respective musical backgrounds whilst demonstrating a quest to create new languages to themselves. In particular, Simon’s use of dense, fast rhythms and rhythmic variants (‘entangling’) posed exciting compositional opportunities. Disruption! was therefore begging to be created.

The music of Disruption!, along with powerful images by video artist duo Peachy Mosig, provides a soundtrack to one of the most disruptive period’s in recent history. Whilst challenging us all, we hope this work offers an opportunity to reflect.

Jeremy Rose (composer, tenor saxophone/bass clarinet)
Simon Barker (composer, drum soloist)
Chloe Kim (composer, drum soloist),
Ben Carey (modular synthesizer),
Jacques Emery (bass),
Hilary Geddes (guitar),
Novak Manojlovic (piano, rhodes, prophet),
Thomas Avgenicos (trumpet)

Jeremy Rose is a two-time ARIA nominated Eora/Sydney based woodwind specialist, composer, band leader, label and festival director, whose music explores the intersection of socio-culture and genre, creating interesting and unique collaborative projects that span the globe. His music has been performed at festivals around Australia, Europe and the UK, has toured extensively in Australia, in Europe recently with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and The Vampires collaboration with Lionel Loueke.

Utterly mesmerising... shaping percussive patterns that incorporated ritualistic Korean rhythms, celebratory Afro-Latin jaunts and wave-like surges of pure energy.”
The Age, Melbourne

“primal spirituality… simultaneously sublime and visceral… Rose is a superb and accomplished musician who should be better known to North American melophiles. His mastery in all aspects of his artistry makes him a creative force with which to reckon. If not his masterpiece, Disruption! The Voice of Drums is definitely a highlight of his career and easily of the best releases of 2022.”
Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/disruption-the-voice-of-drums-jeremy-rose-and-the-earshift-orchestra-earshift-music

“An album that keeps you in suspense from start to finish, which leaves your ears hanging on the cries of Rose's saxophone, and your heart throbbing, ready to beat wildly at the slightest rhythmic thrill of the two solo percussionists.”
Djolo, France https://djolo.net/disruption-the-voice-of-drums-sombre-appel-jeremy-rose/  

“A varied, rewarding and hopeful record.”
Jazz (Orkester Journalen) Sweden, by Rikard Rehnbergh

“There’s a real sense of spectacle to the Australian saxophonist’s link up with the EO, making for tense, thrilling protest chamber jazz.”
MOJO Magazine (UK)

“The musical proposal not only goes beyond modern, improvised jazz, but is also an excellent document of a complex arrangement. …the orchestra and its soloists sound incredibly credible, becoming a universal jazz entity with an interesting reference both to the tradition of American modern jazz (JCOA Orchestra, Sun Ra) and to the carefully displayed academic textures.”
Era Jazzu, Poland, By Dioni Piatkowsky
https://jazz.pl/jeremy-rose-the-earshift-orchestra-distruptionthe-voice-of-drums-earshift-music/  

“an other-worldly salute to the voice and the power of the drums.”
Modern Drummer Magazine

…The whole hour-long suite is shrewdly constructed to create a coherent progression of concepts and moods.”

★★★★ John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald