Merlin Ettore

Merlin Ettore is an experimental musician, artist, drummer, and percussionist. MERLIN ETTORE is a creative freak: a virtuoso drummer, masterful producer, and coveted visual artist. With a long-established artistic persona proving as polymorphic as his skillset, his message cuts as striking and uncompromising, defined by a bold aesthetic-noire he can call his own. While the intense, polyrhythmic powerplay that underpins his live performances leaves a compelling mark, his compositions reveal a mastery of both the acoustic instruments and analog equipment that define his sound. Ettore cuts a unique presence in electronic music’s experimental underground. A passion for the interaction between acoustic and electronic instruments has led to the creation of intricate, mind-bending, and challenging compositions. There's an unrelenting and visceral impulse to his work, defined by a life-long and far-reaching passion for the rhythmic qualities of music. It’s a compelling, abrasive alchemy, defined by a belief in pursuing the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’. This is 'total' music production: composition, collaboration, performance, and recording - of which Ettore is a proven master in all four disciplines. Merlin has been seen and heard through various collaborations with an array of forward-thinking artists such as Don Preston (Frank Zappa), Pussy Riot, Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson), Huun Huur tu, Kangding Ray, Barry Burns (Mogwai) Belief Defect, Kyoka, Samuel Kerridge, Cirk La Putyka & dance company rootless roots. Music festival appearances include Dismaland, Atonal, Unsound, Rewire, WOMAD, and Diaghilev Festival.