SplitBrain is the new tribal ecstasy project by Israeli musician Uri Pessach. SplitBrain creates Drum Music. Drums & rhythms are the foreground. Not the background. SplitBrain is especially obsessed with Frame Drums which are very basic drums consisting of a drumhead stretched over a round, wooden frame called a shell. Frame Drums are considered one of the most ancient musical instruments, they have very powerful & deep primal qualities & one can find them in most of SplitBrain’s musical compositions.
On the techy & electronic side of SplitBrain’s music one can find influences of Acid\Techno\Trance\IDM\Glitch & Electronica.
The beginning of Uri’s lifetime romance with drums & percussion goes back to his childhood :
“ My father bought me my first drum kit as a Bar Mitzva present just before he passed away. It was more than 6 months before the actual Bar Mitzva & I was quite surprised by that but very happy of course :-) . I was always asking myself if it was just a coincidence that he bought it much earlier than expected or was it something else…”
The drum obsession continued with Uri’s composition studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague\Holland. He had passionately written scores for drum kit & triggered samples, for 2 drummers with timpani & orchestral bass drum & additional drum based compositions. “ I was the noisiest student at the conservatorium & I’m not sure the other students really enjoyed playing my compositions but it was a great musical & learning experience anyway…”
Following some experimental musical collaborations with bands like Egrof Yehudi ( Jewish Fist ) & Pogrom, Uri's next musical adventure was his solo alternative pop-rock album Dadadat ( ‘dada religion’ in Hebrew ) . A strange mixture of nonsensical pop with experimental industrial rock. In Hebrew. Go figure…
Another interesting project worth mentioning is Uri’s Middle Eastern beats project Avrahim with his partner Abd El Salaam . Their album ‘Haazinu’ ( ‘Listen’ in Hebrew ) was an interesting fusion of Electronic music with Middle Eastern influences from masters like Oum Kulthum, Farid El Atrash & others. “ I knew Abd El Salaam from his local vegetable shop in Jaffa where I lived. I didn’t know he was into singing… I was looking for a singer to sing a text in Arabic on one of my compositions. A good friend of ours mentioned his name & suggested we jam together. The jam session went better than I expected & that’s how Avrahim was born.”
The peak of Uri’s drum obsession is obviously his recent SplitBrain project which is all about drums, especially frame drums & in which he explores the rhythmic phenomenon even further, closer & deeper.
SplitBrain’s releases :
Ecstatic Rhythms 1 - Debut album
Ecstatic Rhythms 2 - 2nd EP followup
Peter & the Wolf Goes Tribal - collaboration with Drumspyder
Drum Meditations - Drum compositions EP
Sub-conscious - Single 2020
Tribal Triple - 2020 remaster
New releases !!! Framework no.13 feat. Rakesh Chaurasia
Framework no.14 feat. Amir Shahsar
Framework no.15 feat. Kala Ramnath
Framework no.16 feat. Shasha
“My goal is to radiate this musical energy to the listeners, empower them, uplift them & transcend them through the magical energy of drums & rhythm. Ecstasy through rhythm ”.
