Biography
Balázs Pándi, a Hungarian drummer and electronicist, maintains an active international career as both recording artist and improviser. More than 50 releases list him either as a principal collaborator or as sideman. His most prominent partnerships involve Japanese noise artist Merzbow (Masami Akita), American pianist Jamie Saft, and Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. Additional projects have placed him alongside dozens of musicians across electronic, industrial, avant-jazz, and rock idioms, among them Bill Laswell and Thurston Moore. His approach remains intensely physical while spanning free jazz and angular fusion, thrash, progressive, and death metal, plus numerous intermediate styles. He also performs his own distinctive variety of industrial EDM. Echoes of drummers from Rashied Ali and Han Bennink through Zach Hill, Gavin Harrison, and Tomas Haake appear in his playing and improvisations.
His first recording appeared in 2007 alongside Venetian Snares. He co-founded Rope Cosmetology, whose five albums issued between 2009 and 2012 include Diffusion de la Rue de la Double Identité and Disunion Strips. Pándi serves as one of the drummers in the Blood of the Heroes, an experimental electronic collective that also features Justin Broadrick, Bill Laswell, Submerged, Enduser, Dr. Israel, and KJ Sawka; the ensemble’s self-titled debut came out on Ohm Resistance in 2010, followed by War two years later. In 2011 he joined guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi’s doom-rock group Obake for a self-titled album on RareNoise. The next year the quartet Metallic Taste of Blood—Pándi, Bernocchi, ex-Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin, and pianist/keyboardist Jamie Saft—issued its self-titled debut on the same label. He next appeared on One, a trio recording with Ivo Perelman and Joe Morris.
In 2013 Pándi, Saft, Morris, and bassist Trevor Dunn released Black Aces under the metal-improv banner Slobber Pup. Later that year Cuts was recorded with Merzbow and Mats Gustafsson. During 2014 Pándi, Saft, and Morris formed Red Hill with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The second Slobber Pup album, Pole Axe, appeared in 2015, as did Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper by Pándi, Merzbow, Gustafsson, and guitarist Thurston Moore. Early in spring 2016 the drummer, Saft, and Morris backed trombonist Roswell Rudd on Strength & Power; that summer brought An Untroublesome Defencelessness with Pándi and guitarist Keiji Haino.
Despite near-constant global touring with numerous ensembles, Pándi sustained a steady recording schedule. Duo projects include Demon Core with K.K. Null and the Köhnen Pándi Duo with electronicist Jason Köhnen, aka Bong-Ra. In 2018 the latter pair reconvened under Bong-Ra’s name for the digital release Antediluvian. Pándi and Norwegian electro-acoustic multi-instrumentalist Jon Wesseltoft issued Infinite Vice later that year. RareNoise also released Cuts Up Cuts Out by the quartet of Pándi, Merzbow, Moore, and Gustafsson.
His catalog expanded further in 2019. While touring with various musicians, he formed the trio Cement Shoes with Italian bassist Gonçalo Almeida and keyboardist Giovanni Di Domenico; their debut, Opus Caementicium, appeared on Gaffer Records in January. The triple-length Ceremonial Healing, recorded in 2017 and featuring Pándi with saxophonists Marshall Allen and Danny Ray Thompson (both of the Sun Ra Arkestra), Saft, and Dunn plus final guest appearances by Rudd, received a Record Store Day release on RareNoise in April. That same month Pándi and Wesseltoft issued Terreng on Moving Furniture Records. In May, Live at Alternativa by Shibuya Motors, documenting Pándi and drummer Didi Kern with electronicist Slávo Krekovič and saxist/vocalist Miroslav Tóth, came out. One day later Trost released a self-titled album by the quartet of Lee Ranaldo, Jim Jarmusch, Marc Urselli, and Pándi. In September Merzbow, Haino, and Pándi delivered Become the Discovered, Not the Discoverer on RareNoise; the project operated under the guiding principle “no limitations, no concepts…just listening and playing.”
Later in 2019 he rejoined Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Jon Wesseltoft for the vinyl edition of Terreng on Moving Furniture Records. For Record Store Day, RareNoise issued the triple-length Ceremonial Healing, a multigenerational free-jazz session that placed Pándi alongside trombonist Roswell Rudd (in one of his final recordings), Marshall Allen, Danny Ray Thompson, Jamie Saft, and Trevor Dunn. In fall 2020 RareNoise released Cuts Open. The 2018 summer session by the drummer, Gustafsson, and Merzbow presents 87 minutes of visceral music that balances dark atmospherics and summoning dread with the instrumentalists’ pyrotechnics.
His first recording appeared in 2007 alongside Venetian Snares. He co-founded Rope Cosmetology, whose five albums issued between 2009 and 2012 include Diffusion de la Rue de la Double Identité and Disunion Strips. Pándi serves as one of the drummers in the Blood of the Heroes, an experimental electronic collective that also features Justin Broadrick, Bill Laswell, Submerged, Enduser, Dr. Israel, and KJ Sawka; the ensemble’s self-titled debut came out on Ohm Resistance in 2010, followed by War two years later. In 2011 he joined guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi’s doom-rock group Obake for a self-titled album on RareNoise. The next year the quartet Metallic Taste of Blood—Pándi, Bernocchi, ex-Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin, and pianist/keyboardist Jamie Saft—issued its self-titled debut on the same label. He next appeared on One, a trio recording with Ivo Perelman and Joe Morris.
In 2013 Pándi, Saft, Morris, and bassist Trevor Dunn released Black Aces under the metal-improv banner Slobber Pup. Later that year Cuts was recorded with Merzbow and Mats Gustafsson. During 2014 Pándi, Saft, and Morris formed Red Hill with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. The second Slobber Pup album, Pole Axe, appeared in 2015, as did Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper by Pándi, Merzbow, Gustafsson, and guitarist Thurston Moore. Early in spring 2016 the drummer, Saft, and Morris backed trombonist Roswell Rudd on Strength & Power; that summer brought An Untroublesome Defencelessness with Pándi and guitarist Keiji Haino.
Despite near-constant global touring with numerous ensembles, Pándi sustained a steady recording schedule. Duo projects include Demon Core with K.K. Null and the Köhnen Pándi Duo with electronicist Jason Köhnen, aka Bong-Ra. In 2018 the latter pair reconvened under Bong-Ra’s name for the digital release Antediluvian. Pándi and Norwegian electro-acoustic multi-instrumentalist Jon Wesseltoft issued Infinite Vice later that year. RareNoise also released Cuts Up Cuts Out by the quartet of Pándi, Merzbow, Moore, and Gustafsson.
His catalog expanded further in 2019. While touring with various musicians, he formed the trio Cement Shoes with Italian bassist Gonçalo Almeida and keyboardist Giovanni Di Domenico; their debut, Opus Caementicium, appeared on Gaffer Records in January. The triple-length Ceremonial Healing, recorded in 2017 and featuring Pándi with saxophonists Marshall Allen and Danny Ray Thompson (both of the Sun Ra Arkestra), Saft, and Dunn plus final guest appearances by Rudd, received a Record Store Day release on RareNoise in April. That same month Pándi and Wesseltoft issued Terreng on Moving Furniture Records. In May, Live at Alternativa by Shibuya Motors, documenting Pándi and drummer Didi Kern with electronicist Slávo Krekovič and saxist/vocalist Miroslav Tóth, came out. One day later Trost released a self-titled album by the quartet of Lee Ranaldo, Jim Jarmusch, Marc Urselli, and Pándi. In September Merzbow, Haino, and Pándi delivered Become the Discovered, Not the Discoverer on RareNoise; the project operated under the guiding principle “no limitations, no concepts…just listening and playing.”
Later in 2019 he rejoined Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Jon Wesseltoft for the vinyl edition of Terreng on Moving Furniture Records. For Record Store Day, RareNoise issued the triple-length Ceremonial Healing, a multigenerational free-jazz session that placed Pándi alongside trombonist Roswell Rudd (in one of his final recordings), Marshall Allen, Danny Ray Thompson, Jamie Saft, and Trevor Dunn. In fall 2020 RareNoise released Cuts Open. The 2018 summer session by the drummer, Gustafsson, and Merzbow presents 87 minutes of visceral music that balances dark atmospherics and summoning dread with the instrumentalists’ pyrotechnics.
Albums
Churning of the Ocean
2021
Jim Jarmusch / Lee Ranaldo / Marc Urselli / Balazs Pandi
2019
Terreng
2019
Demon Core
2016
Ducks : Live in NYC
2011
Live
