Berlin based percussionist Joss Turnbull has developed a percussive sound language with his main instrument, the Iranian drum tombak, that breaks with conventional boundaries. He searches for an expressive music that gains its energy from the moment and in which his drumming astonishes as a delicate and lyrical voice. With the help of unorthodox instrumental extensions such as rubber balls, tremolo sticks, foils and live sampling, he creates acoustic spaces that are both minimalist and overwhelming at the same time. His music is characterized by tension and a willfulness that forces both the listener and himself to engage with unpredictable moments. Turnbull sees his playing as “Struggle Drumming”: a form of musical expression that combines existential urgency with radical openness.

At the heart of his work are fundamental questions: How can classical playing styles be combined with experimental improvisation? What happens when sound is used as a means of questioning listening habits? What does radical openness sound like?

Turnbull plays on international stages and has been described as one of the most exciting percussionists of his generation (Deutschlandradio Kultur). He developed the concert- performance WE IN A BOX with boxer Everline Odero, where he explores the intersection of physicality and sound through boxing training and the goblet drum Zarb-e-Zurkhaneh. In 2019 he was awarded the 1st Kathrin Prize of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt. This was followed in 2020 by a working scholarship from the Roger Willemsen Foundation at the Vila Willemsen/Mare Künstlerhaus. At the artist residency Turnbull was working on his solo recordings that will be published under the title TURMOIL in 2025.

„Today, Turnbull is considered one of the most important and experimental ambassadors of a mixture of jazz, world music, improvisation and contemporary music with the means of a multi-faceted and limitless percussion spectrum.“
Main-Echo

„It’s hard to believe that only ten fingers are involved in creating such a witchcraft of tapping, scratching, rustling, grinding, fluttering and buzzing“
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik

„the most promising and fascinating german percussionist of his generation“
Deutschlandradio Kultur