Since its humble beginnings on the streets of Trinidad, the steel pan has risen to international attention as one of the most unique and versatile percussion instruments in the world. The steel pan, also referred to as a steel drum, possesses a rich, somber, and oftentimes haunting sonority that can be heard in Calypso music, pop songs, concert works and most recently-- modern electronic composition. "This album was created by distributing a recorded session of steel pan performance by pannist Darren Dyke. An array of composers from around the world digitally abstracted these sessions to create their own original compositions. With an impressive compendium presented here, the works on this record explore a variety of sonic spaces from textural ambience to aggressive and abrasive sound design." - waterloo records Featuring Christopher Ariza, Cory Allen, Mike Vernusky, Thomas Dempster, Paul Russell, Paula Matthusen, Daniel Blinkhorn, Alfredo Barros, Peter Swendsen, Yoshio Machida, Damian O'Riain and Mr. Glitch. **** "Four Stars!! Resonance will go down in history for being the first electronic music album made with Trinidadian steel pan sounds to ever be produced. Twelve artists from NYC, Austin, Greensboro, London, Brazil, Germany, Oslo, Australia, Tokyo and Belfast received samples of the peculiar sounding instrument by pannist Darren Dyke so they could get down and dirty with them and tweak from dusk to dawn. As you'd expect, there is a lot of the experimental/avantgarde thing going on (random steel pan sounds here and there amidst a bunch of other random noises, presumably all originated from the same sound sources but tweaked to the point where the source is almost unrecognizable) however there are also a lot of interventions where the processing is so heavy that you can't identify the instrument at all. In some instances the artists went to town creating their own beats and producing Warp-esque electro-ambient compositions (a great example of that is Paul Russell's exciting track, no wonder he is from London...). Other tracks go from pushing the limits of saturation to creating dreamy an crystallized ambient tunes or from glitch electronica to nightmarish dark drones." - Chain DLK.com **** "As you know, I love electroacoustic composition– the thrill of hearing often ordinary elements transformed into, or combined with, otherworldly sounds is endlessly fascinating to me; both for the fun of it, and for the increased perspective about these sounds that I benefit from. At their best, electroacoustic works reveal and highlight existing aspects of the original sound, and can ‘pull them away’ from the source to allow the listener an opportunity for examination. The multi-composer release “Resonance: Steel Pan in the 21st Century,” available through Quiet Design Records, contains many such works. I’m impressed by the ambitious set-up (source recordings of pannist Darren Dyke performing with an original Ellie Mannette steel pan, and source recordings of steel pan construction were provided to a variety of composers) and by the results– a surprising variety of compositions displaying facets of this instrument I had not imagined." WDBX Radio Chicago