Weston Olencki and Jennifer Torrence perform BATTERY, Olencki’s new long-form work for massed marching percussion. The setup assembles the component parts of a traditional drumline, including a large collection of snares, tenors, and bass drums, two pairs of feedback-induced crash cymbals, and an array of robotic woodblocks.

BATTERY draws upon both musicians’ early experiences and education within the ubiquitous American marching band. BATTERY imagines an alternative drum culture pushed to its algorithmic limits, using electromechanical attachments, intertwined feedback loops, and multichannel synthesis to reanimate source material from the rudiments, virtuosity, and athletic bravado of the drumline, forging new connections between musicians, listeners, and the instruments themselves.

Weston Olencki (b.1992; Spartanburg, S.C.) is a musician, composer, and sound artist based in Berlin, Germany. Their recent music deals with the non-linear relationships between experimental sound, geography, historicity, and (mostly American) musical traditions.

They have presented work at the Borealis Festival, Issue Project Room, REDCAT, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Ghent Jazz Festival, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Black Mountain College, Musica Nova Helsinki, the American Academy in Rome, Roulette Intermedium, and Frequency Festival, among other festivals and venues. Residencies include CalArts, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Northwestern, Princeton, Stanford, and the University of Huddersfield. In 2016, they were awarded the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis by the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt. Olencki is an active member of RAGE Thormbones, Apparat, and the Harmonic Space Orchestra, and performs regularly as a soloist and ensemble member on low brass instruments, winds, banjo, organs, and various electronic media.

Weston Olencki last performed for Lampo in March 2023, when they premiered It lays in heaven the topmost stone.

Jennifer Torrence (b.1986; Dalton, Ga.) is a percussionist and performer, curator, and artistic researcher based in Oslo, Norway. Much of her work is built upon extended collaborative processes with composers and artists from various experimental practices. Collaborators include Øyvind Torvund, Clara Iannotta, Kari Watson, Jo David Lysne, Jessie Marino, Sara Glojnaric, Ase Brunborg Lie, Martin Hirsti-Kvam, Kelley Sheehan, Fredrik Storsveen, Janne-Camilla Lyster, Sam Salem, Weston Olencki, and Natali Abrahamsen Garner. She has also worked with the Alpaca Ensemble, Aksiom, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Norwegian Radio Orchestra. In addition to solo and collaborative projects, she is a member of the Norwegian trio, Pinquins.

Torrence is an associate professor of percussion at the Norwegian Academy of Music, a percussion tutor at the Darmstadt Summer Course, a former curator at nyMusikk, a former artistic research fellow at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and a past Fulbright scholar. She also studied at Oberlin Conservatory, University of California San Diego, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Thank you to the Woodruff High School Marching Cadets in Woodruff, S.C., for the generous loan of equipment.

Presented in partnership with the Graham Foundation; support provided by the American-Scandinavian Foundation