Name: Eli Keszler
Age: 29
Hometown: Boston
Lives in: New York City
Kit: Gretsch Round Badge – Champagne Sparkle
Snare: Pearl Piccolo Snare
Cymbals: Zildjian Constantinople
Pedal: Pearl
Misc: Bows, Metal bits, Crotales, various small cymbals, solenoid motors etc.
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and currently based in New York City, Eli Keszler began playing drums at eight, and composing at twelve. I saw his work first very recently under the bridge in Brooklyn’s DUMBO (the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan bridge). He was performing a piece commissioned by NPR that involved 16 wires ranging from 100 to 800 feet long, all of which were mounted off the Manhattan Bridge and accompanied by 5 drummers on snares (these drummers often perform in a group called So Percussion). In addition, the patterns formed by the overlapping piano wires, created an elegant visual component that related directly to Keszler’s music. Keszler’s current drum installations often employ piano wires of varying lengths; these are struck, scraped, and vibrated by small mechanize beaters, giving rise to harmonically complex tones that are percussive yet resonant. These installations are heard on their own and with accompanying ensemble scores, or drawing based projects and solo performances with Keszler’s aggressive jarringly rhythmic and propulsive drumming. His visual work was recently compiled in a collection ‘NEUM’, a body of drawings, diagrams and screen prints often featuring dense, fine detailed drawing which use a variety of sources, from the surfaces of objects to large scale spaces, and intuitive design similar in intensity, sharing the mass quality of his sound work. His work is currently up at The South London Gallery in London.