Best known as the drumming force behind bands like PVT (formerly Pivot) and Triosk, unrelenting and inventive drummer and composer Laurence Pike has numerous other projects and collaborations under his belt. Pike has spent the last two decades recording and playing with an array of bands and artists intersecting with the realms of electronic and jazz music, including Savath and Savalas, Prefuse 73, Szun Waves, Bill Callahan, Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders, and legendary jazz pianist Mike Nock, to name but a few. We first heard of Pike when he released a solo drum 10″ under the name Laurenz Pike in 2006, featuring the monumental and perpetual favourite track ‘Drums For Fun And Fitness’. So we welcome the recent news of his debut solo album with excitement. Entitled Distant Early Warning, it arrives on March 30th through The Leaf Label. “Originally conceived as a technological and spiritual jazz suite for drums”, as the press release describes, the album is “a series of solo performances for kit and sampler recorded live in a single day”.
Speaking about the mood on Distant Early Warning, influenced by our post-factual society, Pike had this to say:
“The music on the album feels ominous, like a warning bell in the distance. This moment feels like a collision of ideas to me, a point of transition in human evolution. As a musician you try and stay connected and aware of changes in your environment but you don’t want certain ideals to get lost in the process. I guess that’s what is happening in the music, a confluence of perspectives and sounds, multiple flows of time, connecting and disconnection, known unknowns…”
Ahead of the album’s release, Laurence Pike is teasing it with the first tantalizing single ‘Life Hacks’.
Inventive drummer and composer Laurence Pike is a busy guy. This year alone he released and toured his highly awaited celestial debut solo album, Distant Early Warning, and there’s an exciting new record from his band Szun Waves on the way.
