The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the local music scene significantly for the foreseeable future. Unable to play live shows, many local musicians, including drummer David Schoepke, have used virtual and digital platforms such as Facebook Live and Bandcamp to share their music with audiences.
Schoepke released his second album, Tessellated Resonance, on August 4, six months after recording it in his home studio and about a year after his debut album, Drums on Low. With 11 drum-based tracks and with titles including “Voices Welcome” and “Loom Fixer,” Tessellated Resonance is earthy and meditative. Inspired by the sounds that occur within the natural world, Schoepke traveled to his brother’s cabin in Northern Wisconsin. There, he recorded about 12 hours of environmental sounds such as birdsongs and other sounds that are, in his words, “innate between species.”
“I had a thought that I wanted this album to be inspired by these interactions,” he says. “There’s a rhythm going on all around us based on everything coalescing.”
To give his songs a melodic quality, Schoepke experimented with five different combinations of drum sets and drum tuning. “I thought, ‘How do you do it without sounding completely repetitive from one piece to the next? I tried to get away from the chaos that drums can be,” he explains. For some songs, the drummer felt that a minimalist approach worked best. “I’m not always trying to add more and more different things,” Schoepke says.
He plans to host Facebook Live shows Sundays at 7 p.m. in the near future. Part of Schoepke’s shows will focus on “Drum Stories,” an homage to influential drummers including Bill Bruford, Levon Helm, Elvin Jones and Milford Graves.
Tessellated Resonance is available on digital media platforms including Bandcamp and Spotify, or at www.daveschoepke.com.
To read more album reviews, click here.
|
|
To read more articles by Catherine Jozwik, click here.
