Tony Allen & Jeff Mills
The performance will begin promptly at the advertised start time of 8:00pm
Approximate running time: 90 minutes no interval
All times are subject to change
Chal Ravens explores the backstory to techno legend Jeff Mills and iconic drummer Tony Allen’s collaboration ahead of their performance
Jeff Mills and Tony Allen are two masters of rhythm from very different musical worlds. As a pioneer of Detroit techno – tough, minimal, yet infused with the fluidity of jazz and funk – Mills helped establish the drum machine as one of the most familiar musical building blocks of the past 30 years. And as the architect of Fela Kuti’s hypnotising grooves, Allen has been the life-force of Afrobeat since the 1960s, an endlessly innovative drummer whose influence spreads through hip-hop, new wave, punk rock and beyond.
Allen and Mills came together in 2016 in Paris, the city where both now live. For their first rehearsal, Mills brought his Roland TR-909 drum machine over to Allen’s studio to see if their idiosyncratic styles could find common ground. The encounter turned out to be much more than a casual jam session – instead, it was the beginning of a tentative, two-handed interaction that has continued to evolve with every performance. ‘Everything [Allen] does is part of a conversation,’ Mills said in 2017, recalling their first meeting, ‘once I knew that, then I knew how I could meet him halfway.’
For most drummers of course, collaboration is inevitable. Like Allen, Mills has frequently worked with ensembles, from jazz-fusion quartet Spiral Deluxe to the Montpelier Philharmonic Orchestra. But what happens when two drummers try to follow the same beat? Against Allen’s shifting, sliding rhythms, as if in an intimate tête-à-tête, Mills brings something different out of his machine in this collaboration. Exploring the spaces between Allen’s circular grooves, he tests the limits of his cyborgian relationship with the 909 and in doing so reveals its musicality; far from being rigid and robotic, the drum machine becomes a fluid, responsive instrument.
This effect – a blurring of organic and synthetic, human and machine – perhaps only seems unusual because of how electronic instruments and digital music technology have developed since the 1980s. This collaboration is ‘getting back to playing electronic instruments the way they used to be,’ Mills has said, ‘before MIDI technology trapped electronic musicians inside a grid.’ Freed from MIDI – the technical standard that allows computers, synths and samplers to connect, but traps them in tick-tocking time code – Mills’s on-the-fly programming is an intuitive reaction to Allen’s improvisations. A drum roll from Allen’s sticks is echoed by the 909 and back again, opening up a rarely heard conversation between different musical paradigms.
Their exchange has reached right down to the micro level, with Allen teaching Mills about the personal symbolism bound up in each of his drum hits. In the cultural melting pot that is Lagos, Nigeria’s capital city, everyone speaks several languages, switching as necessary in order to be understood. As Mills learned, Allen understands his own playing as a response to Nigeria’s complex social patterns; rhythms are interrupted and switched every few bars, as if in conversation. Listen closely for the snare: in techno, it’s the reliable time-keeper and groove-builder. Under Allen’s sticks, it jumps from beat to beat as the rhythm goes on, each movement changing its relationship with the hi-hat and the kick drum: a melting pot of language and culture expressed through the kit.
Brought together, the duo’s rhythms merge into a single organism, rounded out by gospel-tinged organs from Allen’s bandmate Jean-Philippe Dary, viscous dub basslines and sci-fi echoes from techno’s past. The hi-tech jazz first imagined by Detroit’s Underground Resistance has been reincarnated in an unexpected form.
After the 2018 album Tomorrow Comes the Harvest, a lasting record of the duo’s live chemistry, Allen and Mills are now into the third year of an ongoing collaboration. The music they make together remains as inquisitive and inventive as at their first rehearsal, but as natural as a conversation between old friends.
The performance will begin promptly at the advertised start time of 8:00pm
Approximate running time: 90 minutes no interval
All times are subject to change
Performers
Jeff Mills - electronics
Tony Allen - drums
Jean Philippe Dary - keys
Discover
Watch: Jeff Mills & Tony Allen at New Morning
Jeff Mills and Tony Allen perform at New Morning in Paris.
Listen: Contemporary Music on Spotify
Follow our regularly updated Contemporary Music playlist for a sample of the music you'll hear across our programme. Shuffle recommended.
Barbican Sessions: Gazelle Twin
In our latest Barbican Session, British composer, producer and musician Gazelle Twin performs ‘Glory’ in the Barbican Conservatory.
You might also like...
+ Rob Clouth + Llyr
Barbican Hall
Location
The Barbican Hall is located within the main Barbican building. Head to Level G and follow the signs to find your seating level.
Address
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS
Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.
We’ve plenty of places for you to relax and replenish, from coffee and cake to wood-fired pizzas and full pre-theatre menus
Mobility
Spaces for wheelchair users in row U at the rear of the stalls (up to sixteen, depth of row 180cm) and the back row of the circle (four), both with fold-down companion seats. Some seats in row S of the stalls for people with very limited mobility.
Assistance dogs
Assistance dogs may be taken into the concert hall where there are a limited number of suitable seats in row G of the stalls. If you prefer, you may leave your dog with a member of the cloakroom staff during the performance.
Hearing facility
There is an induction loop in the concert hall. You can use this by adjusting your hearing aid to the ‘T’ setting.
Free large-print programmes
These are available for most of our concerts. Please contact [email protected] at least a week beforehand, to prebook a large-print programmme.
For more access information, please visit our Accessibility section.
Plan your visit
Meet friends, grab a drink, drop in to one of the free installations on Level G before the show - here's what else is happening at the Barbican when you visit.
Tonight the World