Paul Dean Burwell (24 April 1949 – 4 February 2007) was a British thaumaturge and percussionist, influential in the fields of

free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any general rules, instead following the intuition of its performers. The term can refer to both a technique—employed by any musician in any genre—and as a recognizable genre of ...

and experimental art. Born in

Ruislip Ruislip ( ) is a suburb in the London Borough of Hillingdon in northwest London. Prior to 1965 it was in Middlesex. Ruislip lies west-north-west of Charing Cross, London. The manor of Ruislip appears in the Domesday Book, and some of the ear ...

, he studied drums with

Max Abrams Max Abrams (original name Max Abramovitch, 11 August 1907 – 5 November 1995), was a British dance band and jazz drummer and an influential teacher of several generations of drummers. Early career Born in Glasgow, Abrams was largely self-taught ...

, then at Ealing Art College and in the workshops organised by drummer John Stevens. Through the 1970s, he played in a duet with David Toop, sometimes extended to a trio with the sound-poet

Bob Cobbing Bob Cobbing (30 July 1920 – 29 September 2002) was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival. Early life Cobbing was born in Enfield. He attended Enfield Grammar School and ...

. He was also a founder member of the London Musicians Collective, holding membership card no 1, and wrote for the magazine '' Musics'' among others. Paul was also a member of the Resisters. The Resisters played gigs in London and Germany in the late 1970s. During the 1980s he formed the industrial performance group Bow Gamelan Ensemble with Anne Bean and Richard Wilson. In 2000, Burwell moved into the old Kingston Rowing Club in Hull,

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

, turning it into an experimental art space for both local and nationally recognised artists and musicians. Few recordings of his work exist; his work was primarily live and acoustic. Two 7 inch singles, featuring "Low Flying Aircraft" and "When I Grow Rich", and an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by the Bow Gamelan were released. He also featured in David Toop's ''Sonic Boom'' booklet from the Hayward Gallery in 2001, and on Richard Wilson's ''Turbine Hall Swimming Pool'' performance album. He was featured in William Raban's film, ''Beating the Bridges''. A feature-length documentary
Burning Bridges - The Story of Paul Burwell
(2024) produced by Nova Studios Ltd tells the story of Burwell's life and work and features interviews with artists, including Anne Bean, Richard Wilson, Ansuman Biswas and

Shaun Caton Shaun Caton is a British performance artist and painter, who has created over 280 live performances worldwide since the early 1980s. Often characterised by extreme duration (some performances have lasted 3 weeks) or brevity (some performan ...

together with friends and founder members of the London Musicians Collective including David Toop, Sylvia Hallet, Max Eastley,

Steve Beresford Steve Beresford (born 6 March 1950) is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, suc ...

, Peter Cusack and Evan Parker, his former partner Sheila Cobbing (daughter of the poet

) and their sons Titus and Piers Burwell.

References

External links

Obituary
by Brian Catling in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' (UK) 1949 births 2007 deaths People from Ruislip English experimental musicians Free improvisation British performance artists Incus Records artists {{England-musician-stub