Here at last, a solo electronic drum album from Chris Cutler, one of the world's most respected drummers. Cutler has played with them all, including The Residents, a stint with ultra cool rockers Pere Ubu, duos with guitarist Fred Frith, and four CDs with post punk band Cassiber. Its a history which extends back to premier experimental rock bands Henry Cow and Art Bears. Les Paul transformed the guitar into an electric instrument, and for the last 25 years Cutler has been gradually doing the same for the drums. The first stirrings appeared in later versions of Henry Cow, at that time just a few telephone mouthpieces, a reverb unit and a mixer, with which raw drum sounds could be manipulated. This system was basic, but served Cutler well for his early duo concerts with ex-Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith. Later, when he joined Cassiber, contact microphones, a second small mixer, delays and a pitch shifter were added.In the meantime, sampling had become the electronic musician's instrument of choice, but early on Cutler decided this was not for him - it was too inflexible and non-interactive. He preferred to make and process sounds in real time, giving a direct, visceral and organic feeling to his playing, and allowing him to build compositions intuitively. Over the last seven years the kit has become fully electrified, with a sixteen-channel mixer, and an array of effects pedals. Drum sounds can be whipped up and down octaves, doused in wildly different reverbs, sent into eternal delays or unexpected reversals - the whole gamut of possible effects can be applied to each individual drum or cymbal. This is the instrument heard on this CD, in recordings made at recent concerts in Europe and the USA.

How does the electronic kit actually sound? Seeing Cutler In concert, one marvels at how one player can make sounds of such variety, subtlety, and at times power. It's as if a whole electronic orchestra is hidden within a small drum kit. Part of the pleasure lies in seeing how unlikely sounds emerge from a drum being tapped or scraped, sometimes echoing as in a vast cathedral, sometimes transmuted into electronic transmission sounds. Then there are the weird little gadgets that litter a table next to the kit; a mutated 'speak and spell', a range of battery operated cocktail mixers, a fire bell, a massager, ping pong balls, electric toothbrushes, a screw rod, beaters and bowls electric egg-slicers, etc. All these sounds are woven together into searing compositional structures, avoiding the random noise making of so much software-derived lap top music. It's a system that allows a fully engaged musical intelligence to operate, in real time.

Often a drum solo is the least appetising part of a concert or record: ego massaging for the player, but un-musical, boring and self-indulgent for everyone else. Cutler has changed all that, and will change the way you think about drums forever.

TWICE AROUND THE EARTH: Compiled from source sounds that have been recorded in 81 different global locations, this remarkable new album collapses the planet into a Sargasso Sea of sound. The material was taken from Cutler's daily half hour radio programme for Resonance FM: Out Of The Blue Radio. "The idea," he explains, "was to open a virtual window on to a different soundscape every day; to put the listener for 30 minutes into someone else's ears, somewhere in the world." 247 contributors sent in 30 minute recordings made in real time at a location of their own choosing, but in the time window of the London broadcast (between 23,30 and midnight GMT). Cutler again: "These were simple blocks of time whose content was uncontrollable. Contributors could choose where to be and what to be doing, but beyond that, whatever happened, happened." TWICE AROUND THE EARTH is a fascinating hour of listening, delivering en route, puzzles, amazing coincidences and, tantalising fragments left unresolved: the earth keeps moving. (Except during the thoughtfully placed central piece in Luxembourg Airport. Time to put our feet up for a while and recover between flights).