HAND'STAN

The catalyst for this particular CD was Abbos Kosimov, who is regarded as one of the greatest exponents of the doira-the national instrument of Uzbekistan. Hands On’Semble first met Abbos at the Tainan Chi-Hsi Int’l Arts Festival – Int’l Drummers Gala in Taiwan in 2003. Since then they have remained in contact through email, searching for an opportunity to work on a project together. On a moment’s notice, almost two years since their meeting in Taiwan, Abbos came from Tashkent to L.A. to collaborate with Hands On’Semble over a two-week period which resulted in the recording of all of the tracks for HAND’STAN.

Several percussion luminaries who have been collaborating with Hands On’Semble throughout the years also joined to collaborate on the recording of HAND’STAN:
Swapan Chaudhuri - a phenomenon in the arena of Indian classical music, famous throughout the world as a true master of tabla
Adam Rudolph - an American percussionist who has been in the vanguard of cross-cultural improvisational music for over 20 years
Houman Pourmehdi - Persian percussion master in the classical tradition of the tonbak as well as the spiritual path of the Ghaderi order of Sufi and their virtuoso Daf players
Brad Dutz - L.A. session percussionist heard on countless albums and soundtracks for film and television.

Together these artists work through a kaleidoscope of rhythms, forms, and soundscapes, exploring the multitude of commonalities, bridging cultural and musical differences, creating an entirely new work for percussion based on tradition and bound by none.