Symbiotic Instruments is a collection of experimental musical instruments designed by sound artist, and composer Roxanne Nesbitt. These instruments include ceramic bells, bowls, cones, and rocking tubes, designed to be played on the strings of a grand piano and the skin of a drum. In 2017, Juno award–winning drummer Benjamin Brown was the first collaborator, testing experimental percussion instruments in performances in Europe and Canada. Award-winning composer and pianist Marielle Groven is a new collaborator to the project bringing a fresh and impressive sensitivity to the sound.
 
As a composer, Marielle Groven has received commissions from Array Ensemble (Toronto), ensemble mosaik (Berlin), Bozzini Quartet (Montreal). She is also an active improviser, performing with Aaron Lumely and Jasper Stadhouders. Ben Brown has received commissions from the Western Front and NOW Society in Vancouver and numerous dance artists in the Vancouver area. He is an active improviser performing across Canada and Europe. Recently, Roxanne has received commissions to compose and design instruments for Ilana Waniuk (Toronto), and Ensemble Modelo 62 (Den Hag). She composes and performs in the art-pop project Graftician.
 
Roxanne has been working with her ceramic symbiotic instruments at bauchhund since October in preparation for a ceramics residency at the European Keramic Work Centre in Oisterwijk. This research is generously support by the Canada Council for the Arts and British Columbia Arts Council. Aaron Lumley (1981, North Bay, Canada) is an Amsterdam-based double bass player and improvising musician. Working primarily in free jazz, post rock & roll and 21st century composed music, Lumley is an exploratory musician who embraces the huge sonic and expressive power of the acoustic string bass. He frequently plays with Jasper Stadhouders, Duke Garwood, Frank Rosaly, Marta Warelis and John Dikeman among others� Lumley will be performing solo at bauchhund in support of his new record, ”Aaron Lumley plays the Doghouse Bass“ (STABLE WORKS).
 
”Lumley′s solo performance […] is energetic and concerned with the creation of sound masses built up from the simultaneous sounding, whether bowed or plucked or both at once, of multiple strings. His playing here is always forward-moving, pushed ahead as much by tremolo bowing as by an aggressive pizzicato; he often balances an explosive lower register with the shrilling sounds of harmonics, multiphonics, and bowing close to the bridge. His is a raw, exuberant sound expressed in a highly personal vocabulary of limit-challenging techniques.“ Daniel Barbiero on ”Aaron Lumley Plays the Doghouse Bass“, for Avantmusicnews.com