Zen Yen Zen - Drum music, Dm 18 - my 107th album. Concert music for Wood Block and Drum in six parts. Recorded live at Isabel. An exploration into a set of very intense percussion patterns. You are invited to listen carefully to an intricacy of pattern and punctuation, over a considerable period of time.

Zen Yen Zen - Rh 422 for drum and . . . There is just one more thing you should know, there is no Wood Block, it is the conceit of the project, the Zen in the quiet mind. It is a very particular drum stroke you will hear and follow, with ease - let it be your guide.

For me music is about the art of Deep Listening - that is to say, where the listener is not a passive participant, but is required to actively and carefully breath with the music. Here you will find another world, of multiple patterns laid one upon another - delineating themselves with clues of pitch and punctuation - of regularity pulse and intimation. This experience will require a dedication of time - the reward being the participation - as if you were the player - discovering the full sense of the structure for yourselves. For me music would take me completely out of myself - and this can. A drum - and the whispering tick of a stick and a block of wood. You are sitting comfortably in a white room - there is nothing to watch except the movement of my hands. No vast percussion kit to bedazzle you with a myriad sounds. It is much more difficult than that. Reaching beneath any obvious polyphony of profusion to the pure expression of intention - period and gesture - where the subtleties of performance become instruments in themselves. Enjoy !

Dedicated to my Dear friend Yeni - Yen of the title.


The Outer Blue Album Group - Dm Indices

An early reorganization of my music research interests had defined my music into dedicated sets of Albums. This way things of a kin got heard together - as one type of album or another - by Genre - or Tranche as I styled them. In this case Dm, music for Drums of various kinds. By Convention Dm.

Beginning as a percussionist my first 7 albums are for Drums of various kinds, Drum music or Dm, my first area of research interest or Tranche. I soon realised there was a second area of percussion, as a generality over a specialism - percussion on anything other than Drums, Metal Percussion music, or MPm. The third of five is the Phase music, realised by tape looping and timing, Phm. The fourth, a genre of Electro Acoustic composition, Music for Strings, Electronics and Percussion, or MSEP. The last genre is Electronic music, Em, taking the longest processing detour from an original acoustic source.

Album numbers 96 to the End [that is to my last numbered album] - form my Fifth ‘Group’ - a 5th time division across my Genres, my Outer Blue Group. The End being what it will be, but I have no plans, at the time of writing, in August 2020, to number any further albums, the given End being 142. This all builds on the foundational 'Blue Cherry Group' [where I had introduced my 5 areas of research interest] and the big 'New Horizon Group' - [where I explored to see where these five genres were leading me]. There then seemed to be a ‘band of gold’ across my discography. My Golden Band Group, that mark a particularly successful time for me. The albums that follow that, 76 to the End, are a ‘Blue Horizon’ - after the phrase ‘blue sky research’ - the ‘Blue Horizon Group.’ For convenience, I divided this Huge area into the Inner and the Outer Blue. So my Fourth Group is the Inner Blue Group. Then a Fifth and last Group builds upon that - my outer Blue Horizon - or Outer Blue Group.

There are thirteen Dm albums in the Outer Blue Group: Dm 15 - Dm 27. The Dm Arkiv album ‘Sometime live’ is not numbered.

Albums Dm 15 - 17 continue to document my ‘W’ studio sessions for Drum - with the Complete W Dances - spread between the three. Together with album Dm 14 in the Previous Group they form an important set documenting my Dm work at that Studio - with Dancer Choreographer Joanna Geldard. in our Etuda collaboration. As Etuda we recorded two further albums - Percussion W and Intonation W.

These sessions were also important to me for three large Solo Drum sonatas - nos. 8, 9 & 10. Nos. 9 & 10 are on the albums in this Group. Confusingly, no 8 is in the previous group. Just logistics and chronology - it missed the cut. It is on album Dm 14. Years later I recorded there again, this time with my Ensemble D’juil - cellist David Dhonau and Concert Flautist Sara Minelli - becoming our album D’juil 25 ‘Trio in five Parts.’ So . . .

[] Album Dm 15 Sn for Solo Drum no. 9 - together with the first of the W Dances.

[] Album Dm 16 W Dances 8 - 14 - pieces for Joanna Geldard to experimentally dance to.

[] Album Dm 17 the Sn for Solo Drum no. 10 [of the 12] - together with the last of the W Dances.

Albums Dm 18 - 21 are sets of works with conceptual twists.

[] Album Dm 18 Zen Yen Zen is a set of Meditations for Drum and Wood Block - where the wood block is a particular stroke of the Drum - or did you imagine that.

[] Album Dm 19 Metrognomics - Three pieces where I make you think a metrognome goes out of phase with me - in live acoustic recordings.

[] Album Dm 20 Table music - a suite of pieces performed on the Leather skins of Books, on a table - in a hard resonant chapel room. Stretching a point I think to say it was drum music. It is MPm by the definition ‘Anything other than Drums. it is though percussion on akin - so what defines a drum ? Skin or resonation - this has both. I set out to re-imagine a drum - and that is why this is still Drum music.

[] Album Dm 21 Konnyek - is a Drum Part - I recorded for Serbian Pianist Marina Vesic to respond to, for our collaboration ‘Konnyek’ - I kept this part as music in itself - as an album for me. In 2020 German wind specialist Marcus Wenninger added a flute part to make the album ‘Music in the wake of Konnyek’ for our Wenninger Broadhurst Collaboration.

Albums Dm 22 to 25 are a complex but important bunch with a frivolity here and there. Dm 22 and 24 are more conventional recordings but are very difficult multimovement pieces. Inventions that touch the limit of drumming possibility, in live acoustic performance. Inbetween them is another conceptual work Dm 23 Drum Mantra - with Maria Finch - that goes way beyond live human performance. Chronology is an awkward Mantra. Dm 25 ends the Drum Sonata series with an 11th and 12th Sn, reaching the Cannonical 12th and closing the series.

[] Album Dm 22 Fifth inventions for Djembe - a fifth set, and a growlingly difficult multi movement progression - for my signature instrument - in a syntax of figuration.

[] Album Dm 23 Drum Mantra - a fantastic feature I made with fellow drummer Maria Finch for the rattle and hum of it. It fits here, at this point, for being at an edge with perception.

[] Album Dm 24 Sixth Inventions for Djembe. I have tried each time, in each set of inventions - to push ever further - till now I run along the edge of intelligibility. This is the last of this series - it isn’t possible to go any further along this course and say anything with it - I find a limit of perception. The Six sets of inventions for this instrument form the core of my Drum music - alongside the twelve Sonatas for Solo Drum.

[] Album Dm 25 Sonatas for Solo Drum nos. 11 and 12 - the Solo Drum Sonata was at the core of my Drum music since the very beginning. Now fittingly, at the end, are the last two. Unlike the Inventions for Djembe I didn’t pursue difficulty for its own sake. In them I pursued a performative ideal for the sake of music in itself - The Cannonical no. ‘12’ has brought them to an end.

[] Album Dm Arkiv Sometime live - a summation of live pieces.

Albums Dm 26 and 27 are as chalk and cheese.

[] Album Dm 26 Double Up a set of album length Studio pieces that blow the notion of Drumming music out of the water.

[] Album Dm 27 In an English Parish Church - live in that is. In a Church near me, I helped out at the Summer fete, by giving a performance in the Church. With a wonderful acoustic to play into and many noises off I close my numbered Dm Genre. What a journey it was.

Outer Blue Group - Dm []

DCM 096 Em 38 -- Blue Dark Marine
DCM 097 MSEP 22 -- Sn for Solo Vc 1, 2

[] DCM 098 Dm 15 -- Dm Sn no 9. 9 []

DCM 099 MSEP 23 -- Sn & St for S. Vc

[] DCM 100 Dm 16 -- W Dan. 8 -14 []

DCM 101 Em 39 -- Dodecette
DCM 102 MSEP 24 -- Luigi

[] DCM 103 Dm 17 -- Dm Sn no.10 []

DCM 104 MPm 12 -- Hamermusic
DCM 105 MSEP 25 -- Consort m. for Strings
DCM 106 MPm 13 -- 45’23 - Mp solo

[] DCM 107 Dm 18 -- Zen Yen Zen []
[] DCM 108 Dm 19 -- Metrognomics []

DCM 109 MSEP 26 -- Nabucco - Om
DCM 110 EM 40 -- Profusion
DCM 111 Em 41 -- Cant for P C
DCM 112 Phm 12 -- Past for wind gr.
DCM 113 Arkiv -- Arkiv
DCM 114 Em 42 -- Funeral Music
DCM 115 MSEP 27 -- TUOE [Sym 2]
DCM 116 MSEP 28 -- Sin Vit [Sym 3]
DCM 117 MSEP 29 -- Symphony 4

[] DCM 118 DM 20 -- Table music []
[] DCM 119 Dm 21 -- Konnyek []

DCM 120 MSEP 30 -- Codasolo

[] DCM 121 Dm 22 -- 5th Inv for Dj []
[] DCM 122 Dm 23 -- Drum Mantra []

DCM 123 MSEP 31 -- Symphony 5

[] DCM 124 Dm 24 -- 6th Inv for Dj []

DCM 125 MPm 14 -- Footfall A & B
DCM 126 MPm 15 -- Inv for Steel Casing
DCM 127 MPm 16 -- Imp in 4 and 3 Pts
DCM 128 MPm 17 -- Six Sns. for Metal P.
DCM 129 MPm 18 -- Inv for Industrial Unit
DCM 130 MPm 19 -- Now is N. t. T. f Dan
DCM 131 MPm 20 -- Parellelia
DCM 132 MSEP 32 -- Organum
DCM 133 MPm 21 -- Perfor in Plastic
DCM 134 Em 43 -- Geut - B Version
DCM 135 Em 44 -- Vib. Blue Light
DCM Ark Em Arkiv -- What nu. Added to

[] DCM 136 Dm 25 -- Sn for S. Dm 11 &12 []

DCM 137 MSEP 33 -- They Make Music

[] DCM 138 Dm 26 -- Double Up + Per PP []
[] DCM Ark Dm Arkiv -- Sometime Live []
[] DCM 139 Dm 27 -- In an English Pa Ch []

DCM 140 MPm 22 -- Quarlium
DCM 141 MSEP 34 -- A Little Less than K.
DCM 142 MSEP 35 -- Gregorious A & B
DCM 143 MSEP 36 -- Entangled A.B & C

The DCM album numbers list volumes in a [for the most part]
chronological edition - the ‘DCM Broadhurst Edition’ - Prepared for the British Library in 2020. The volumes or albums themselves were actually released as and when it was possible. The Edition though, was planed from the start to stand on the 'foundation Stone' of the Blue Cherry group.

The Rh catalogue, numbers my individual works in order of Completion.