Percussive Entropy: Chris Corsano at Talk Low Festival 2025 in Cincinnati, Ohio
Talk Low Festival celebrated its second year as a premier experimental music festival in Cincinnati, drawing together the avant-garde from near and far. Before one of the performances I attended, festival organizer Ryan Hall emphasized the event’s mission to focus on deep listening, which I thoroughly exercised in various capacities during the performances I heard. Talk Low stands as a reminder of the importance to listening keenly and intently, and how experimental music can help nurture that practice. Although I was only able to attend events held on September 27th, I relished in the creative stimulation as I traipsed across downtown Cincinnati to catch three stunning, completely different experimental musicians throughout the afternoon. The drummer Chris Corsano kicked off my afternoon at Homemakers Bar in OTR, where he decimated the intimate setting with his controlled chaos. JJJJJerome Ellis began my time at Christ Church Cathedral, in which the multi-instrumentalist embraced the space and silence of the sanctuary both in body and sound. Finally, Sarah Davachi took to the cathedral’s massive organ to put deep listening into practice with her drone performance that eschewed silence in favor of languid motion. As I began writing, I realized I had so much to say about each performance that I decided to split my recollections into two parts — this week, I’ll share my experience hearing Corsano at Homemakers, and for the next post, I’ll head over to Christ Church Cathedral to write about the performances by Ellis and Davachi.
Walking into the Chris Corsano performance felt unassuming, almost incongruous with the eventual chaos that Corsano would conjure in a few minutes. Daylight streamed into the cozy Homemakers cocktail bar with Corsano’s drum set tucked in the corner, dapples of light reflecting off the bright walls and the eclectic, tiled bar surface. Corsano’s opening was just as ethereal, bowing two bows back and forth across the rim of the snare drum to capture multiple, angelic overtones all at once. Different pitches came in and out of the fore depending on the pressure placed on the bow, creating an effect that sounded similar to a train. Sometimes, entirely new notes manifested as Corsano, clad in his Tashi Dorji tee, pressed his various bowls and items into the drum heads. These ethereal overtones emerging from the bow at times turned abrasive, coarsely erupting and foreshadowing the chaos to come.
The tone of the set first shifted when Corsano brought out what I referred to in my notes as an “abbreviated” clarinet. The clarinet was missing two parts, so only the mouthpiece, one set of keys, and the bell were put together. Abbreviating the clarinet made it possible for Corsano to play the clarinet into the drum head while he continued to interact with the drums with the other hand. Corsano’s tone with the clarinet almost sounded string-like, or too reedy like a saxophone, blending with the previous sounds of his bow work. The clarinet fluttered and hit overtones, reaching a frenzy like a trapped butterfly flapping against its confines. Through adjusting the screws of the tom, Corsano was able to create varying effects of reverb, releasing the fluttering clarinet into the vastness of a room bigger than our own.
At this point, Corsano erupted into a full drum breakdown, frenetic rhythms skittering across the set. Using a multitude of implements, and varying hits on the drum heads and rims, Corsano’s hands flit so fast across the set they were like hummingbirds. Bowls rattled on top of the drums, and when their use was through, Corsano tossed them aside without missing a beat, the embodiment of entropy through a drum set. Everything eventually falls apart. Nothing ever stops. In this entropy, Corsano deftly balanced a sound that verged on chaos, but was also clearly guided by his masterful control. With the introduction of a little autoharp that Corsano drummed on top of, its petite twang shifted the tone of the set towards a more metallic quality. Everything was changing so quickly in his set that each time I looked down to write notes, I glanced up again to find that Corsano had introduced a new element to his performance, or discarded another.
I had never heard Corsano perform live before, and I must admit that I was skeptical about whether a forty-five minute experimental drum set would maintain my attention. I often gravitate towards melody, counterpoint, and harmony, elements along those lines to pull me into a piece. I was delighted to find that Corsano’s set flew by, my ears riveted the entire time, and he proved to me that you do not need melodic instruments, or have to use those instruments in a traditional way, to develop a piece with intrigue, texture, pitch, movement, vigor, and virtuosity. He implemented percussion instruments in an entirely creative manner, repurposing everyday items to summon new sounds and approaching the standard parts of a drum set as if he wasn’t playing a kick, snare, tom, cymbal, but rather these vessels of sound completely free of previous meaning and tradition. At the same time, it was clear that Corsano was precise, skillful, and in control enough to also loosen the reins.
For my next blog entry, I’ll post part two of Talk Low Fest, discussing my experiences hearing the multi-instrumentalist JJJJJerome Ellis and organist Sarah Davachi at Christ Church Cathedral. While Corsano’s percussive entropy banged against the tight walls of Homemakers, bouncing off the bottles of gin and rattling between bar stool legs, Ellis and Davachi soared in the cathedral, floating up to the stained glass windows like wisps of vapor.
– Hannah Blanchette
All photos by Renoxal Visuals
October 7, 2025 | Blog