Marijus Aleksa - Solo (Live in Vilnius) (2023)

Throughout his remarkable international career, drummer & producer Marijus Aleksa has established himself as a bona fide master of groove. Through his work as an in-demand band leader, session musician and solo artist, his journey thus far has seen him perform with Bill Laurance, Joe Armon Jones, Ashley Henry, Dennis Rollins, China Moses, Ben Marc, Anthony Joseph, Femi Temowo & Oscar Jerome. Following the release of his second solo album ‘As They Are’ earlier this year (which gained exceptional support from Tom Ravenscroft, Jamz Supernova, Deb Grant, Jazz FM, NTS Radio, KCRW, Andrew Jervis, Spotify & more), Marijus now prepares to unveil his new project ‘Solo Live in Vilnius’ - immersing listeners in a mesmerising and captivating world of rhythm.

Continuing to push musical boundaries into ever-deeper realms, Marijus Aleksa brings his audience further down the rabbit hole on his forthcoming album. Spread across six movements, ‘Solo Live in Vilnius’ sees him take centre stage, painting an intriguing and mesmerising sonic tapestry, utilising a wide array of percussion instruments as his brush.

As he puts it: ‘I had to rediscover the drums and percussion instruments as the protagonist, the story-teller’. To achieve this intense level of immersion, Marijus tuned drums to various scales - bringing out the melody within the instrument, and even used woodblocks to mimic the effects of modular synths throughput.

On the inception of this concept, Marijus explains: ‘I felt the urge to tell the story of my musical journey on the drums alone. I tuned the drums to certain scales, so one can hear melodies and not just beats and I used percussion instruments from different parts of the world, including Lithuania to get a rich sonic and cultural landscape on this album.’

With performance having been recorded at the Improdimensija concert series for improvised music, the influences on display range from Jaki Liebezeit & Milford Graves through to Japanese Gagaku music & West African percussion, classical minimalist (and of course electronic music), the record is a demonstration of incredible technical prowess and visionary virtuosity. A truly otherworldly listening experience, created by an artist at the top of their game.