Tim Barnes is a storied drummer, engineer and producer whose CV encompasses collaborations with a serious who’s-who of late 20th and early 21st century music.Most well known as one of the two drummers (alongside Glenn Kotche) on Jim O’Rourke’s seminal late 90s and early 2000s recordings, Tim has recorded, performed and collaborated with Tony Conrad, Faust, Alan Licht, P.G.Six, Silver Jews, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, The Tower Recordings, Ken Vandermark, Wilco, John Zorn and countless other artists working at the forward edge of improvised and experimental music.For many years he was the proprietor of the boutique Quakebasket label, which documented much of this music, as well as reissuing seminal works by Angus MacLise, the original drummer for the Velvet Underground.Now, the Quakebasket imprint has been revived to issue music Tim has recorded over the last several years with collaborators from throughout his music career. In 2021, Tim was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 54, and he and his family went public with this immediately.The response from Tim’s network of friends and musical peers was overwhelming, but the lingering shutdown meant only remote and long-distance interactions were possible.Beginning in late 2021, a large body of recordings coordinated and assembled by Tim’s longtime friend Ken (Bundy) Brown, with whom Tim had worked in the past as a member of the group Pullman, early pioneers of the new Americana movement in the indie scene of the late 1990s.‘Lost Words’ features the playing of Joshua Abrams, Ken Brown, David Daneill, Darin Gray, David Grubbs, Glenn Kotche, Tara Jane O’Neil, Jim O’Rourke, Ken Vandermark and Britt Walford.Alongside its companion album ‘Noumena’, ‘Lost Words’ represents the culmination of years of work and demonstrates Tim’s infectious energy and depth as a percussionist across a broad sweep of styles.• “To be blessed not only with good friends but also such marvellously talented friends! Tim Barnes remains an inspiration not only as a world-class musician but also for bringing together artists who might otherwise not have met.And so it’s perfectly apt to see this awesome gathering of folks in a dreamt-of round robin of playing with Tim magisterially at the hub, beautifully and lovingly assembled by Bundy K.Brown.” – David Grubbs “I’ve been making music with Tim for over 25 years and have been lucky enough to not only double drum with him, but also improvise in many settings and make two duo recordings as well.He’s always been the brightest of lights musically and personally.I’ve learned so much from Tim—someone who I’ve always referred to as a musical encyclopaedia – and am filled with joy that these recordings showcasing Tim’s artistry are becoming available so everyone can hear and be reminded of his talents.” – Glenn Kotche “Tim Barnes has always been a gentle, yet commanding, presence in the microexperimental-underground praxis of North American ‘new music’.His concepts of percussion moving into electro-acoustic phenomena have always been an exalted balance of the organic and the intellectual; the sound of pure thought transcended through inspiration.Regardless of this hyperbole, what is exacted in Barnes’ improvisations and compositions is the constant essence of beautiful music.” – Thurston Moore
