bio:
Booker Stardrum is a composer, percussionist, producer, and educator. Stardrum’s music is a highly personal amalgamation of electro-acoustics, minimalism, ambient, jazz, and contemporary experimental electronic music. His compositions are sculptural, carved from the dense layering of instruments and manipulated samples, a pantonal harmonic sense, and an intuitive approach to rhythm. In addition to countless experimental and improvisational collaborations, pop projects, film scores, and sound design, Stardrum has released three solo records (‘Crater' in 2021, ‘Temporary etc.’ in 2018 and ‘Dance And’ in 2015).
Stardrum’s frequent collaborators include Lisel aka Eliza Bagg, Jeremiah Chiu, Patrick Shiroishi, Horse Lords, Wendy Eisenberg, Amirtha Kidambi, Chris Williams, Carl Stone, and Lee Ranaldo. Stardrum has scored films by Suneil Sanzgiri and Miranda Javid. He is a OneBeat fellow, a New Amsterdam Composer fellow, a Pioneer Works resident and a Denniston Hill resident and has had new works commissioned for The Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NY) and Indexical (Santa Cruz, CA). He has toured in the US, Europe, Asia, and South America and has performed at such festivals as Big Ears (US), Rewire (NL), Le Guess Who (NL), Moers (DE), Meltdown (U.K.), Brighton (U.K), Festival Bo:m (ROK), Hopscotch (US) and Ecstatic Music (US). His discography includes solo and collaborative releases on independent labels such as NNA Tapes, Northern Spy Records, Mexican Summer, Saddle Creek, Luminelle, Prom Night Records and Home Tapes. Booker lives in unceded Munsee territory also known as the Hudson Valley in New York State.
Stardrum’s frequent collaborators include Lisel aka Eliza Bagg, Jeremiah Chiu, Patrick Shiroishi, Horse Lords, Wendy Eisenberg, Amirtha Kidambi, Chris Williams, Carl Stone, and Lee Ranaldo. Stardrum has scored films by Suneil Sanzgiri and Miranda Javid. He is a OneBeat fellow, a New Amsterdam Composer fellow, a Pioneer Works resident and a Denniston Hill resident and has had new works commissioned for The Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NY) and Indexical (Santa Cruz, CA). He has toured in the US, Europe, Asia, and South America and has performed at such festivals as Big Ears (US), Rewire (NL), Le Guess Who (NL), Moers (DE), Meltdown (U.K.), Brighton (U.K), Festival Bo:m (ROK), Hopscotch (US) and Ecstatic Music (US). His discography includes solo and collaborative releases on independent labels such as NNA Tapes, Northern Spy Records, Mexican Summer, Saddle Creek, Luminelle, Prom Night Records and Home Tapes. Booker lives in unceded Munsee territory also known as the Hudson Valley in New York State.
Pitchfork
“On the seven-minute highlight “Trash Island,” he begins with a collage of scraped and battered drums and cymbal hits. Without warning, the drums stop, only to reveal glistening organs before the scratching and bashing returns. And on it goes, swinging like a pendulum between chaos and order, violence and idyll—cycling, turning in circles, as only a drummer knows how.” -Philip Sherburne
The Wire
“The most impressive track on Temporary etc. is “Swimming,” which conjures images of an otherworldly rainforest sojourn, as an eerie aural fug of indeterminate origin rises like mist from a primordial alien swamp. With this uncategorizable album Stardrum further solidifies his position as one of America’s most intriguing composers.” -Dave Segal
Noisey
“There’s a track at its center called “A Passage or Time in a Hanging Truth,” which explores dense clustered synth harmonies over the course of five-and-a-half minutes, calling upon the legacy of drone music to freeze the record’s momentum at its center, to bask for a moment in uneasy stillness. This turns out to be true even of the moments when Stardrum plays more recognizable rhythms, there is a slip-stream that occurs even when his playing is fast and scattered. He creates bubbles in which you can rest, moments of stillness amid the flailing.” -Colin JoyceModern Drummer
“The drummer, who grew up in a household steeped in top-level twentieth-century classical music performance, has built up an impressive résumé featuring some of the most compelling experimental pop and rock groups of the past decade. He’s also released an adventurous percussion-oriented electroacoustic album and developed an evolving solo show that reveals unique methods.” -Adam Budofsky
AllMusic
Boomkat
The Quietus
Flood Magazine
Billboard
LA Times
Thrd Coast
Resident Advisor
Gorilla vs. Bear