(((O))) Review: Manuel Pasquinelli – HEARTBEAT DRUMMING: Bellmund Session

“Every time I perform heartbeat drumming, it reminds me of how vulnerable we are, and how fragile we take for granted is. Our heart accompanies us every day”. Manuel Pasquinelli’s quote on the back cover of his latest album doing a 37-minute one-take drum performance recorded live at the Mazzive Sound Studio in Bellmund, Switzerland five years ago on June 26th during the pandemic says it all.

There’s no denying Manuel has made a name for himself behind AKKU Quintet, Sonar, and Schrödingers Katze, has come a long way to prove listeners who follow his work, and the projects that he is known for, is taking a leap forward into the Heartbeat Drumming he’s unleashed this year. It took place in a series of three studio concerts Manuel had done during that time frame when the world came to a screeching halt.

So, for Manuel, it created this journey into a meditated field of finding his own true self by playing at the tempo of the beats he was playing. From the moment his heart is thumping at the very beginning, you could feel a pin drop with the ambiance floating into the studio as he begins his improvisation.

Manuel begins to start off slow. But as soon as he builds up the tempo from slow to very fast, it becomes this increasing level of jaw-dropping excitement to see where this is going. There’s a moment where he does the primitive vibration to create this volcanic eruption in a chant-like vibe as the mood turns into a Stravinsky-esque atmosphere for a brief moment.

He is on a roll to get the mission completed. And there’s no sense of stopping him as he goes through various improvisations on his kit to see the job is near completion. When Manuel is playing, you don’t interrupt him or anything, because he’s worked so hard to bring everything down to the front on his arrangements by making his heart pound of the patterns he is playing from beginning to end.

It does feel like something straight out of the sessions from Sonar at times, but Manuel is being true to his own form. Combining the stratosphere, jazz orientated improvisations, electronic altitudes, and keeping up with the race track that’s waiting for him. And this here is on the mark, right where we want it.