IS this what civilisation is coming to? That six grown Swedish men make a living pounding drums? That a decorous Japanese lady wields mallets and plays wooden keys? Hopefully, yes. The Kroumata Ensemble, with their frequent partner, Keiko Abe, gave a concert of percussion and marimba music - all of it written by or for them - creating new sounds, and producing a whole new concept in music. Serious music for percussion is hardly new, of course. From the Turkish marches of Mozart and Beethoven to Edgar Varese, percussion has revealed a wide range of music. The Kroumata, though, actually seem to have fun with their music, so that a whole evening of endless banging is all too short. Typical was Georg Katzer's Schlagmusik 2, a long work which actually satirises avant-garde creations. The group starts with the usual drum volume, but produces music of magical tranquillity, which metamorphoses into hilarity. Actually a musical game, it encompasses magic tricks, coughs, claps, pebbles and cymbals of microcosmic softness. The opposite was Sven David Sandstrom's Drums. The name explained it all. No cymbals or rachets, simply pairs of drums pounded louder and louder, gaining in intensity what it lacked in anything approaching scale. Keiko Abe is perhaps the most famous of Japanese marimba players, but she is something of a paradox. In music by contemporary composers, she plays her instrument with molecular speed, taking the most complex harmonies and rhythms with utmost ease. With her own music, she is conservative in the best sense. Whether playing an atmospheric work with six mallets, or virtually duplicating a Japanese festival with two soft sticks, she is a most formidable artist, helping to create, to say the least, a formidable evening. Kroumata Ensemble and marimbist Keiko Abe; APA Lyric Theatre; March 9
