Peter Orins - Vrtn & Vbrtn (2021) Hi Res

Continuing his solitary explorations, Peter Orins used an impeded year to initiate two distinct developments that enrich his approach to the drum solo.

The piece VRTN is a variation, or an extension, of the piece Happened By Accident, the subject of the eponymous album released in 2019 (Circum-Disc – LX014). It takes up the use of the drums as a resonator of various objects, wood, metal, glass, and the preponderance of the unexpected, by introducing accidents and interactions. The musician adds electronic treatment, which we find in his first record (Empty Orchestras – 2013), produced by Pure Data software: a device, designed in collaboration with Antoine Rousseau, autonomous enough to influence him in an unpredictable way. The electronics, in addition to more randomness and confusion on the sources of the timbres, causes a magnifying effect on the “microscopic” sounds, and plays with the resonances and vibrations by adding strange harmonic progressions.

VBRTN incorporates an extended technique found somewhat by chance by the drummer: inserting a thin woodstick between a cymbal and a floor tom, the play on the cymbal making the drumhead vibrate and resonate. Multiplying this device here with 3 floor toms and 3 cymbals, the resonators thus obtained produce long drones where the very low register meets subtle harmonics, creating moving melodies, beats and vibrations.