Count, but do not play

I have always been fascinated by the moment when a gesture becomes automatic. And when repetition of that gesture turns into a mesmerizing pattern. In Count, but do not play, I strip drumming of its music and expression, reducing it to a visual pattern. The drum surface is replaced by the illuminated glass plate of an overhead projector. The brushes glide over it, creating patterns of movement that appear as a projection on the wall, only just faintly audible.   

At a certain point, the drummer breaks free from the pattern. He starts to improvise, searching for sound in the very device that made his performance so silent. For a moment, the projector almost becomes an instrument. Then a new pattern emerges, and the cycle begins again, transfiguring the act of drumming into a visual projection with its own poetry.

This work was inspired by Fun with Brushes (1970), an instructional record for jazz drumming.

For this project I worked together with drummer Hein-jan van der Veen, who also performed Count, but do not play live.