Vanessa Tomlinson
Vanessa Tomlinson plays percussion as a composer’s instrument and a social one, moving between notated contemporary scores and open collaborative forms. Her sound ranges from precise ensemble colour to vibraphone, voice and the activation of place.
With Erik Griswold she co-leads Clocked Out, a long duo and project partnership that has stretched from intimate albums to community-scale events such as 84 Pianos. She has recorded Xenakis’s complete percussion works and, in collaborative studio pieces built from improvised duets, adds percussion, vibraphone and voice to long unfolding textures. Her solo practice treats space itself as material, using soundings to wake a room or landscape rather than simply fill it.
Vanessa Tomlinson appears on
PRTZL
This release of original compositions by Harvey centres on the monumental Piano Sonata No. 4, a homage to the anti-fascist Antonio Gramsci. That theme runs through solo and ensemble works whose moods range from nostalgically whimsical to furiously satirical.