TorQ Percussion Quartet

The Call of the Drum
www.torqpercussion.ca
Youtube Video Link
Bone Lake Amphitheatre

"In the beginning was noise. The Big Bang. And noise begat rhythm. And rhythm begat everything else. Everywhere we look we see rhythms, patterns moving through time - in the cycle of the stars and the migrations of animals, in the fruiting and withering of the plants. Rhythm is the heart of mystery." Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart in Drumming At The Edge of Magic

TorQ Percussion Quartet constructs a world of sound based on rhythm, with virtuosic command of a bewildering variety of plucked, struck and even bowed instruments from around the globe. The group's presentations are carefully planned, almost choreographed, and frequently employ humour. TorQ compositions can be spacious and soothing, inducing an almost trance-like state in the listener with their slowly unfolding melodic journeys. Other selections are no-holds-barred, visually arresting showpieces that will cause a riot of echoes to ricochet around our wilderness lake, lingering long after the last note is struck. The quartet includes Rich Burrows, Jamie Drake, Daniel Morphy and Adam Campbell, who returns to Bone Lake after his performances in our 2007 production of R. Murray Schafer's Princess of Stars.

John Terauds of The Toronto Star has written "TorQ can stand proud among the growing throng of chamber percussion ensembles around the world." For many, percussion is an irresistible calling, being deeply rooted in science, nature and the mapping of our brains. The great mythologist Joseph Campbell (whose work inspired George Lucas's Star Wars) says "you don't find a shaman without finding a drum." The Forest Festival's Bone Lake amphitheatre under the stars is the perfect place for TorQ to connect us with the call of the drum, the music of the spheres.