nôél/pércuss1ôn/éléctr1côn1cs brénnàn/DRUMS/àrkturéyé v1nylAßLisM/ßLEEPblô0p
The drums found me at six as an instrument and as a language. My father (a history teacher) paid a student $50 for a used drum set. Three decades later, I still speak through that original echo, layering, erasing, and building a path from resonance that shifts beneath my hands, beginning with that first strike of skin on sound.
From then to now, I’ve been drawn to many sounds and forms of music, fortunate to learn from remarkable teachers along the way. This includes studying sabar with multiple masters, and being a dedicated disciple of Pandit Anindo Chatterjee in the art of tabla for over a decade.
Akrtureye, an electronic music alias that is a frequency, filament, and flicker between dimensions. Born in the hum stuttering its way into rhythm, with a musical aim to be a vessel for the different, the splintered, and the beautifully irregular. The aim is creation.
My instruments are relics and rituals: spinning turntables, analog machines with memories etched in static, percussion gathered from far corners, Indian bells, metals that sing when struck, and sabar echoing ancestral syllables.
Each sound is a fragment of some deeper architecture, a structure of curiosity, chaos, and connection. Hearing the world sideways, chasing that strange signal just beyond hearing.
2021 Community Scratch Games
Winner of the experimental battle by combining drum set, language-based percussion, and turntable techniques.
2019 Swifstyle’s Keep Skratching Battle
Battle winner and featured artist in a dedicated Scratch Break episode, alongside renowned turntable legends such as Qbert, Craze, D-Styles, and Mix Master Mike. A segment from this feature also won the Brooklyn Nets’ “Shoot Your Shot” contest.
As a electronic musician:
Maquishti Prismatic
Vibraphonist/composer Patricia Brennan and percussionist/turntablist Arktureye have released Maquishti Prismatic, an electronic reinterpretation of Brennan’s acclaimed 2021 debut album Maquishti. Originally performed solo by Brennan on vibraphone and marimba using unconventional techniques and live improvisations, Maquishti explores silence, space, and new sonic territories with curiosity.
Arktureye describes Maquishti Prismatic as “texturally paradoxical, smooth but sharp,” created from samples across Brennan’s solo record. The piece captures floating moments and sonic abstractions, reflecting the album’s underlying pulse and Brennan’s patient musical strength.
Schoenburg On the Beach
Arktureye contributes a series of electronic interludes that weave the album together, using manipulated soundscapes sourced from a 1957 Coney Island field recording. These atmospheric bridges echo the surrealism of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, transforming archival audio into ghostly, dreamlike textures that connect each piece. Blending ambient composition with turntablism, Arktureye adds a modern, expressive layer that deepens the album’s themes of memory, place, and transformation.
As a drummer:
