Milo Tamez

Born 1971, in an artistic family, San Luis Potosí, México.

An incessant researcher, Milo Tamez artistic envision urges for a renewed listening sensitivity on drum music, he focuses on the percussiveness phenomena in nature and its effects in creative invention on human being. For the last seven years he has been concentrated in the percussionist body-mind interwinding and in the eukinetic and proprioceptive body-instrument interrelationship, following the neuroscience premise conception that ̈the body has a mind of its own... ̈ looking deeply into the origins of percussive fact for new responses, gesture grace and the ̈what is in the spirit that speaks ̈ through the creative drummer instant composition experience. He is continuously exploring into the elements of compositional wide complexities and abstract dimensions of pure rhythm and sound in Nature; the physicality of time in space, and the transductive phenomena of sound, light and touch, in human perception system as a foundation for expression and evolution. His creative instrumental work evolves from the textural embodiment of organic structural sound organization in Nature, as it nourishes his constructive imagination and inventiveness.

He has been a major leading voice in new creative and experimental music for solo drumming in Mexico, from the minimal-silent reductionist environments to the more energetic open space improvising ones; covering multidisciplinary fields of poetry, painting and video art, soundscapes, dance and performance, audiovisual installations and space interventions. In 2001 he began SchlagArt- Arte Percusivo Integral Libre, a compositional explorative platform expanding into a new percussive art poetics; always inviting audiences to a unique different approach for experiencing drumming music. Quite unique original compositions for extended drum set-percussion had evolved since 2005, like his sixty minute long cinematic science fiction piece ̈Drum Odyssey ̈ based on Stanislaw Lem ́s ̈Solaris ̈ and ̈ The Demon Haunted World ̈ by scientist Carl Sagan; or his ninety minute long tour de force for jazz trap set ̈TOBEATORNOTTOBEAT Slavery is Abolished...it ́s its? ̈ a complex intense tesis - poetic manifesto on Afroamerican avant-jazz drumming,

embracing and composed on eight great drum masters (Max Roach, F. Don Moye, Rashied Ali, Beaver Harris, Milford Graves, Sunny Murray, R. Shannon Jackson, Andrew Cyrille). Over the years SchlagArt has gone from a way of investigation and understanding percussion music to a deeper compositional practice, into a way of living percussivness. Also, the collaboration with composers has been a major concern along his path, he has premiered many new works for solo drum set-percussion composed specially for him since 1998.

He ́s been active for more than two decades as an educator, leading workshops independently, in private schools and universities. While living in Chiapas from 2009-2015, he did create Audiosferas: del juego creativo con el sonido, a pedagogic-didactic system for creative experimental music and instant composition, a program developed ideally for kids and experienced with indigenous kids in the community fields for three years. In 2004 he started his drum workshop TAMBORERO LAB, a specialized drum set chamber music ensemble with pedagogical purposes; from 2005 to 2010, the workshop developed more than ten hours of music repertoire and didactic materials. This percussion laboratory is now working in its 2017 edition in Mexico City.

His collaboration with other artists includes exclusively creative projects from AvantJazz, New Chamber Music, Free Improvisation, Contemporary Dance and Theater, Experimental Music and Film, and Visual Arts. He ́s been active in festivals and art encounters, performing solo or in collaboration with other projects. Some unique musical moments on stage, program collaborations and artistic encounters from 2001 to date include: Andrew Cyrille, Rashied Ali, Ramón Lopez, Reggie Workman, Warren Smith, Karl Berger CMS; Robyn Schulkowsky and Christian Wolff/ LIMINAR Ensamble de Música Nueva; Jonathan Golove, Thollem McDonas/Estamos Ensemble; Omar Tamez/Encuentro Internacional de Jazz y Música Viva Monterrey; Rodrigo Castellanos, Dario Palermo; ROVA Sax Quartet, Emilio Gordoa, Chris Cogburn, Dave Dove, Andrew Drury, Remi Álvarez, Angelica Sanchez, Harvey Sorgen, Felix Petry, Shanti Oyarsabal, Theater des Lachens, and many many others.

Mainly strongest influences in Milos creative mind and performance evolving character and studies include his father Nicandro Tamez theory- philosophic writings and music; writings and music of K. Stockhausen; work and art theory of Paul Klee, W. Kandinsky and P. Mondrian; art conceptions and works of painter Zao Wou Ki; the music and conceptions of I. Xenakis; the percussion music of Carlos Chavez, works for percussion of Per Nørgård, J. Cage, M. Feldman, C. Wolff, J. Tenney, Stuart S. Smith, Lou Harrison; Japanese percussion works of Norio Fukushi, Maki Ishii, Masanori Fujita, Shin-ichiro Ikebe, Toshi Ichiyanagi, (to name a few); music works and writings of Dr. Julio Estrada; the mind of phenomenologists Gaston Bachelard, Edgar Morin, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Merleau-Ponty, as well as many High Energy Physics - Phenomenology thinkers; experimental psychology applications of Claudio Naranjo; educational views on instant composition and musical insights like those of Murray Schafer and Edwin Prévost among others; and many more updated -researching studies and art resources.

Recently based in Mexico City, Milo is currently developing his upcoming project POLLOCK ̈los tambores pintores ̈, an instant-composition laboratory for open extended drum set ensemble, developing his new graphical works based on three matrix compositions.

OXYOQUET ̈el volcán silencioso ̈ Piezas en Cadencia I-XII, is his first solo recording; and represents a cross-border between two consequent eras in his creative process and career.