About Me
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace) I am a German born drummer, percussionist and guitarist with a few additional skills on Marimba, Bass, Trumpet and Piano. I am also a producer, ethnomusicologist, teacher and composer. I have done a Jazz degree in New York, Mannes College of Music, I have studied at the Manhattan Drummers Collective and I have dedicated the last dozen years to finding my sound. Fourteen years ago, I lived in Casamance, Senegal for a year, which turned my aspirations as a musician upside down. Ever since I have fused West African musical forms with the language of the drum set and I have explored relationships between the kit and other percussion, particularly the Djembe tradition. This search has been an extension of my previous studies of Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian rhythms in New York. In the meantime I have also lived three years in Venezuela and nine years in London, working, teaching, composing and recording my first solo Album called "Brixton Beach" with my own Band "Émigré". In London, I have accompanied a few African, as well as contemporary Dance Companies on percussion(Badejo Arts, Frititi, Chomenleys) I have played lots of Latin Jazz and worked as a multi instrumentalist at the Laban Center as well as London Contemporary Dance School. I am currently playing guitar in a fantastic Brixton based Hi Life Band called "Yaaba Funk". Hi Life, Palmwine guitar and Afrobeat are my main focus at the moment and Yaaba Funk is a band to look out for in the future. I have done a Masters in Ethnomusicology at SOAS, London University, focussing on African music and culture. I am now producing African musicians who are deprived of professional outlets for their work in order to get their music recorded and promoted. I have initiated charitable recording projects for local musicians in Uganda and Senegal and I am the artistic director of the music program of the US charity Empowerment Work! We sponsor African musicians and bring out compilation CDs to raise funds for building a studio in Ziguinchor, Senegal. Our recent release "La Musique Diola" is the very first compilation CD on Diola music from the Casamance region of Senegal. Please have a look at www.myspace.com/empowermusicians for more info and music.
I am also an experimental sound artist and the inventor of porcelain music, meaning, music exclusively played on especially designed porcelain instruments. This quite unique extravaganza has been made possible by my father Walther Stürmer, who is a well-known porcelain sculptor in Germany and who makes my instruments. I often help him preparing his exhibitions, so we have a nice creative father-son collaboration going. My first CD on the subject - called "Porzellan Musik", has found a lot of recognition in the contemporary dance world. So far choreographers in UK, India, Canada, Indonesia and USA have picked up on it and a few dance schools and teachers are using this expressive sound art for contact improvisation jams as well as various creative processes.
I am currently living in Cologne, Germany, where I give creative drumming workshops in the Stollwerck, Südstadt, based on the Mandinka Djembe tradition. In Cologne I also play drums and sing for an altenative Carnival showcase called the Immigrantenstadl. We put on six shows this season and I am glad to be part of the debate on immigration in my own country after having lived outside for 18 years. I will spend the year 2008 promoting my various projects in Germany and France; I will promote Yaaba Funk, because this band will do extremely well here. I will promote my porcelain sound art for film, dance and theatre. Above all, I will push my charitable work in Africa forward, secure funding, build a recording facility in Casamance, Senegal and promote friendships between musicians across the north-south divide. I want to get back into playing for 5 Rhythms Sessions and contemporary and African dance here in Cologne. Obviously I am always looking for good bands who need an experienced drummer, percussionist or guitarist. I hope you’ll get in touch if any of this sounds interesting.
