Payton MacDonald - Modules (2019)

Composer and percussionist Payton MacDonald teams up with legendary experimental guitarist Elliott Sharp and Steven Crammer, a ferociously talented young drummer who is new to the scene. MacDonald’s Modules were designed for these musicians, considering their improvisatory prowess and creative range. Drones are present in each piece, grounding the diverse timbral and textural activity in the foreground. Each Module explores a different realm, like different countries in the same continent, unified by similar modal and rhythmic concepts, separated by radically different compositional systems. Payton MacDonald is a musician, filmmaker, and ultra-endurance cyclist. He explores the frontiers of art in a variety of settings, from Carnegie Hall to remote wilderness locations. He spent his early years drumming along with jazz records, while exploring the Rocky Mountains near his home in Idaho by foot, bicycle, and skis. Eventually he was shaped into a percussionist who plays marimbas, snare drums, bicycles, plants, pots and pans, and anything else that might produce an interesting tone. Along the way Payton discovered Indian classical music, and after 20 years of studying that ancient music he now sings it in concert halls, yoga centers, and ashrams.