If the question is “when does a drum not sound like a drum?” then “when Eli Keszler’s behind the kit” is often the answer. As a percussionist, Keszler has collaborated with the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never, Laurel Halo and Oren Ambarchi, and explored the untapped potential of skin and stick through his own solo releases on labels like PAN, Shelter Press and ESP-DISK. His compositions are delicate and dense, intricate and complex, making use of the drum kit in unconventional ways: a tap of the snare or a flick of a cymbal might trigger a specific sample; or even a chain-reaction of sound. The acclaim he’s recently received as a percussionist and composer risks overshadowing his background as an multidisciplinary artist – he’s exhibited visual and installation work at The Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, the Barbican and LAX Art.

Keszler’s last album Icons (LuckyMe) is an immersive work in perpetual motion, evoking a glorious and dystopian western world. Known as a frequent collaborator to Oneohtrix Point Never, Laurel Halo, Kevin Beasley, and Rashad Becker, Keszler’s latest solo venture offers up a latticework of built upon fragments of American abstraction, ancient scales, industrial percussion, and jazz-age film noir to achieve its feeling of imperial decay. Keszler’s instrumental performances are framed by panoramic recording of New York City and the Odyssee Cave, along with other on-location audio from his global travels, defining an expansive music that takes on hyperreal forms difficult to describe outside of the loss and wonderment that defines our age.

Keszler has released music on Shelter Press, Empty Editions, ESP Disk and PAN. His 2018 album Stadium was awarded Boomkat’s Album Of The Year. Most recently, Keszler wrote the original score to Dasha Nekrasova’s feature The Scary of Sixty First (which made its recent premiere at Berlin Film Festival) and contributed to Daniel Lopatin’s original score for Josh and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems.