Tag Archives: Booker Stardrum

Booker Stardrum and Evan Shornstein (Photay) announce debut collaborative album OOPS!

23 April 2026

Two singular artists, drumming wizard, improviser and composer Booker Stardrum and acclaimed composer, drummer, DJ, and producer Evan Shornstein aka Photay, have announced details of their first collaboration, OOPS!. Set for release on June 5th through Sudden Quarterly, it marks the second release on the label founded by Spencer Zahn. OOPS! came to life following an invitation from Zahn for the two to create a collaborative full-length album. Stardrum and Shorntein have worked together creatively for years, but OOPS! is their first record as a duo.

Alongside the album announcement, the pair have shared the gently groovy and undulating title track. Speaking about it, Stardrum says:

“The way that we compose as a duo is by improvising and allowing ourselves to create the grounds for happy accidents. ‘OOPS!’ exemplifies that ritual and reminds Evan and I not to take things too seriously, and follow the unplanned detours to their destinations.”

Evan Shornstein also had this to say:

“When Booker and I get together, we make music out of quick impulses. I’m usually multitasking as both a player and a producer. This time, with Spencer Zahn at the helm as producer, I was able to lean even deeper into my playing and set aside any expectations of where we might end up.”

‘OOPS!’ is offered with a video directed by Spencer Zahn. Watch it now.

Booker Stardrum releases new solo album Close-up On The Outside

28 February 2026

Photo: Rendy Mahardhika

A longtime favourite artist of ours, drumming wizard, improviser and composer Booker Stardrum released yesterday his new solo album Close-up On The Outside, his first release for We Jazz Records. Even though it’s a solo record, the album feels collaborative and full of life, and it saw Stardrum join forces with a circle of trusted friends, including Anna Butterss, Jeremiah Chiu, Chris Williams, Lester St. Louis, Logan Hone, and Michael Coleman, to build something alive together. Stardrum “creates textures through midi controllers, samples, and loops”, as the press release describes, “wherein acoustic sequences are altered to fit plugged-in concepts or acoustic instrumentalists are brought in to humanize what he’s already mapped out electronically”. At its heart, Close-up On The Outside reflects on our connection to the world around us.

‘Dusk’ was the latest single to be let loose from the album. Of the track, Stardrum says:

“The original, working title for this piece was ‘Coyote at Dusk,’ named for a mangey coyote I used to see around my old neighborhood in LA. I dedicate this piece to all coyotes, especially the mangey ones. Thank you to my collaborator on this piece, Chris Williams, who approaches all music with such sensitivity, even mine ; )”

Listen to it below and be sure to grab the album straight after.

Watch the new video for Booker Stardrum’s third single ‘Walking Through Still Air’

11 June 2021

With less than a month to go until the release of Crater, Booker Stardrum‘s much anticipated third album, he is enticing us again with a new single called ‘Walking Through Still Air’. “This was one of the last songs I wrote for the album” explained Stardrum. “For me, it’s a somber love letter to the early days of the pandemic. I spent a lot of time walking around Los Angeles, exploring the neighborhoods around my apartment, finding new dirt paths and canyon hikes. I repeatedly ran into a coyote with mange. I was in a conflicted head space– occupied by thoughts of death, unemployment, climate change, and capitalism, but also an inescapable, out of body sensation of stillness. LA is already steeped in a deranged kind of beauty and there was an unfamiliar quiet and calm in the city.”

The single is offered with a video accompaniment, animated by Miranda Javid and featuring additional video footage by Booker Stardrum, Ize Green Diebboll and Jaimie Branch. Watch it below and grab Crater when it drops on July 2nd through NNA Tapes.

Booker Stardrum unveils new single, ‘Bend’, featuring Jaimie Branch

19 May 2021

We had already heard and loved ‘Diorama’, the first single lifted from Booker Stardrum‘s Crater, his much anticipated third album. As we get closer to the album release on July 2nd through NNA Tapes, the drumming wizard, improviser and composer has let loose another wild cut from the album called ‘Bend’, featuring Jaimie Branch. Speaking about the song, Stardrum said:

“I titled this one ‘Bend’ after my natural relationship to pulse and rhythm, an elastic flow state that I strive to achieve in my playing. I love the feeling of stretching time in and out of groove, stumbling, and snapping back into it. Playing freely is a meditation on listening and awareness, and the embodiment of flexibility. I always attempt to capture these types of moments in my recordings, then enhance them with other gestures in a similar spirit. ‘Bend’ features trumpet bending by the always inspiring Jaimie Branch.”

Listen to ‘Bend’ below.

Booker Stardrum announces third album Crater

28 April 2021

Drumming wizard, improviser and composer Booker Stardrum has been on a roll as of late. Following an exciting collaborative album with Lisel released earlier this month⁠, Stardrum is making a return to his namesake solo project with a much anticipated third album. Entitled Crater, the album arrives on July 2nd through NNA Tapes. As with most of his other works, percussion is at the core of album, yet, as the press release describes, Crater comprises “not just percussive phrases, but melodies, textures, sound, noise, and the cracks and crevices of vacant space between these bodies.”
Along with the announcement, Stardrum has let loose the first single ‘Diorama’. Take a listen below.

Lisel and Booker Stardrum team up for debut collaborative album Mycelial Echo

17 March 2021

Photo: Lisel by Gregory Wikstrom / Booker Stardrum by Brian Guido

Drumming wizard, improviser and composer Booker Stardrum and singer, producer, and experimental artist Eliza Bagg aka Lisel⁠ have joined forces for a debut album entitled Mycelial Echo. Crafted remotely over a six week period, the album is closely tied to other artistic projects. Half of the music was written for an opera about trees⁠ set to be presented in a virtual reality installation this year and the other half was composed for The Vanishing Point, a 25-minute music and dance piece commissioned by National Sawdust. The piece was made with dancer/choreographer Gwendolyn Gussman and conceived as video art.

The press release elaborates on Bagg and Stardrum’s collaboration:

“Lisel’s manipulated vocal samples, processed vocal improvisations, and patterns built from extended techniques are combined with Stardrum’s complex sequences, organic percussion, and synths to create a portrayal of our relationship to the natural world that is both tactile, sensorial, and seen from a distance.”

Preceding Mycelial Echo‘s release on April 9th through Luminelle Recordings, the pair shared two riveting and celestial tracks,  ‘In The Dome’ and ‘I Am Not Ready To Go’.  ‘In The Dome’ comes paired a video directed by Bagg herself and featured Gwendolyn Gussman.