Paul Burwell (1949-2007) - the music of the Thames

Sad news of the recent death of the artist Paul Burwell. Many years ago I came across the marvellous sounds of his Bow Gamelan - constructed on the model of the Indonesian originals but with unlikely components such as a variety of motorcycle parts, if I remember rightly. Some years later - the last exhibition at the much missed gallery workfortheeyetodo - I enjoyed his variations on the record player, including one in which the rotating platter brought a stick into contact with a variety of bamboo rods, turning the gramophone from a machine of sound reproduction into a genuine percussion instrument. But sadly I didn't hear the following, described by Brian Catling in the obituary in the Independent:

"The day was gone and the fog closed in. A chalky white bass note shivered the river and stopped the blood. Fast-lapping rhythms echoed and smouldered into a vast and unknown space. Burwell was playing the river. In fact he was playing a fleet of marooned concrete barges. Sticks in hand, jumping between their different pitches, fluttering their cadence with consummate skill. The music was eerie and solid, a combined sounding of place and dream.

"There exists a BBC recording of Burwell playing on the Thames. When it was first aired, it so startled the ears of the listeners that it was asked for again and again, so that they might hear once more a resonance so perfect and so generously given. It is the sound of Burwell which endures, the drummer's flux between delicate whisper and furious vibration."