Will Guthrie is an Australian drummer / percussionist living in France. He works in many different musical settings: live performance, improvisation and studio composition using various combinations of drums, percussion, objects, junk, amplification and electronics..
He plays solo and in various projects such as THE AMES ROOM, ELWOOD & GUTHRIE & THE SOMMES ENSEMBLE though has also played in Anthony Pateras’ Thymolphthalien, and Pateras’ recent collaboration with Mike Patton tētēma. His music has been released on labels such as Gaffer Records, Erstwhile, Clean Feed, 23five, Editions Mego, Ipecac, iDEAL and his own label Antboy Music. He is also a co founder of Melbourne’s long running Make It Up Club. This is an excerpt of his forthcoming solo album Sacrée Obsession (Ideal Recordings). Stay tuned for a review.
This from the press release:
“Sacrée Obsession”, the new album from the Australian percussionist extraordinaire Will Guthrie, comes out of his continuing research into repetition, the ritual, physicality through volume and mass, and complexity through the development of simple ideas. Combining pulse and rthymic ideas with melodic and pitch based textures he has succeeded in making truly unique music.Obsessive development of minimal material is not new in Will Guthrie’s music, from his brutal tribal like and non romantic vision of free jazz with THE AMES ROOM, to thinking long with the likes of Oren Ambarchi and David Maranha, obsessively working through reduced material has been central to Will Guthrie’s music since his debut solo recording “Building Blocks” in 2003. With Tetris like logic in it’s architecture, TIMELAPSE uses notes and tones hung out in space, beautifully resonating in the magical Chapelle Saint Jean in Mulhouse where it was recorded. PACEMAKER on the flip side recorded at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, is multi layered and multi dimensional in it’s and sonic and rhythmic possibilities, using repetition, resonance and mass to create a hypnotising music which is simultaneously powerful and subtle. This is a highly recommended piece of vinyl for anyone into dark, organic, minimal music.”
Side 1 recorded by Christian Wing Lang, Chapelle Saint Jean, Mulhouse, France, 28 August 2014
Side 2 recorded by Romain Prêt, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France, 12 February 2015
Mixed & mastered by Joe Talia, Melbourne, Australia
