Sean Baxter

Sean Baxter (drumkit and percussion) is an Australian improviser who has forged an international reputation as a bold explorer of percussive possibilities both as a soloist and through his work with the acclaimed avant garde trio, Pateras/Baxter/Brown.
Focusing on the use of extended techniques applied to the conventional drumkit, he utilises an arsenal of metallic junk and other percussive detritus to expand the sonic palette of the percussion tradition. His performance aesthetic evokes a variety of sonic practices, ranging from extreme metal and punishing noise to free jazz and the Modernist abstraction of the classical avant garde.
In addition to Pateras/Baxter/Brown, he performs regularly with the brutal, free-jazz/grindcore quartet, Embers, and in frequent ad hoc collaborative and solo incarnations. As a soloist, his practice ranges from acoustic junk percussion and extended drumkit technique to feedback noise—creating intense sonic abstraction by utilising the natural, acoustic resonance of the drumkit pushed to extremes.
He is also a voracious group improviser, and has collaborated with some of the world's most adventurous musicians, most recently including: Robin Fox, Kusum Normoyle, Kim Myhr, Lloyd Honeybrook, KK Null, Paul Grabowsky, Han Bennink, Peter Brotzmann, John Wiese, Valerio Tricoli, Lucas Abela, Robbie Avenaim, Carolyn Connors and Marco Fusinato.
A founding member of pioneering Melbourne experimental groups bucketrider, Lazy and Western Grey, Baxter has been an active presence in Australia’s avant garde for the past couple of decades both as a performer and curator. Currently, he is the artistic director of the venerable Make It Up Club, Australia's longest-running weekly concert series dedicated to avant garde improvised music.