Claire Rousay - A Collection (2021)

We’ve been jokingly referring to A Collection as Claire Rousay’s “Greatest Hits.” Over the last four or five years, Rousay’s made a lot of music - frankly, it can be hard to know where to start. A Collection is our attempt to showcase her music prior to a softer focus - an origin primer, beginning with her recordings as a solo drummer and the ensuing transition into musique concrete/new music composer.

A Collection clocks in at about two hours and fifteen minutes and boasts thirteen songs, split over two CDs. Rousay selected her favorite drumming cuts to fill the first CD and did the same with musique concrete/new music for the second. On disc one, scattershot, frenetic percussion compositions like “All,” “Tusk,” and “Good Set” share space with more constant drumming pieces like “Virulence.” Disc two often maintains the use of percussion, but even at the outset on “Things I Doubt You’d Care About”, we hear Rousay’s vocals - sometimes spoken, sometimes whispered. We begin to find light melodic content, a shrill drone frequency, her now-staple field recordings, and voice-to-text like on “I’m Not A Bad Person.” Want to find where Claire Rousay begins? Look no further.