The Brutalist Modularism of Tom Djll

While some of the details discussed about patches and performance ratios used in modular systems may be a little too technical for the non-specialist, Philippe Petit’s interview with Tom Djll for his MODULISME radio program does provide an overview of how the Bay area composer/performer works. Someone who also plays trumpet and has been involved in acoustic projects with the likes of percussionist Gino Robair and guitarist John Shiurba, Djll has a parallel career working with modular systems in groups featuring Robair, Tania Chen, Clarke Robinson, Cheryl Leonard, Andrew Raffo Dewar and many others. Initially influenced by Jazz-Free Music theorists like saxophonists Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, Djll soon discovered the electronic sounds of programming pioneers like Richard Teitelbaum, Hugh Davies, Pauline Oliveros and Sun Ra which lead him to build and experiment with electronic systems on his own. Today what he calls his brutalist modular system has been designed and tweaked with loops, samples and voltage to fit his particular needs. Still, Djll insists that any interested musician should be fearless in experimenting with modular equipment and that there are no wrong ways to do so.