Austrian musician Lukas Koenig is primarily a drummer. But there’s a lot more than percussion happening on his latest solo album, Buffering Synapsis (opal tapes), from sputtering noise to fractured circuit breaking to creepy horror-soundtrack ambience. Using electronics and pedals along with his cymbal, Koenig lets his imagination fly, leading to fascinating juxtapositions between tracks and sometimes even inside them. Despite the stylistic whiplash, Koenig manages to instill his music with a sense of purpose, never blasting forward blindingly or tripping over himself to find a new sound. As a result, static churn, whirring spasms and terrifying echoes are like branches of the same highly-engaging musical tree.In recent years Koenig’s solo work has repositioned itself toward a stuttering, data moshed version of the solo drummer. The imagery of brain tissues micro and macro being loaded, reloaded and exploded with data, time stamping and pure kinesis as conjured by the title of this album could not be more apt. With this recording an almost cartoon like level of intensity is sometimes reached through movement and movement alone. This is a music re-animating the “solo” drummers album while re-collecting it’s history of new-complexity, lowercase, Bertoia-esque metal manipulations and all out free jazz fire music. Never drab or stuffy its cybernetic, hyper technical but above all; only accomplishable at the speed of thought. It’s intrinsically human music. Deploying double kick drum played in stroboscopic clusters, hyper-tactile cymbal work, table top electronics and FX pedals to mute, melt and mutilate his flailing limbs and ocean like tam tam bathing. Buffering Synapsis is a tiny view into the creative world of an incredibly exciting and unique musician. (Texts by Opal Tapes + Marc Masters)

Performances at: Donaufestival Krems, Skanu Mesz Riga, Sajeta Festival, Bushfire Festival Swaziland, Jazz à Vienne (FR), Cully Jazzfestival, North Sea Jazzfestival, Jerusalem Festival, Skopje Jazzfestival, Fusion Berlin, Eurosonic Norderslaag, Goa Jazzfestival, 12 Points Dublin, Jazzfestival Saalfelden, Rock Am Ring, HighFields Festival, Jazzfest Wiesen, Jazzfest Wien, Beijing Ninegates Jazz Festival, DMX Festival Mexico City, Artist in Residence Schrattenberg, Bohemia Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, Fimav Victoriaville and many more