Who Is The Quorn?

The Quorn is my stage name. It was given to me humorously by one of my teachers as a play on my real name Alan Corne. 

I am a drummer/percussionist who lives in  Australia. I have been playing drums professionally for forty years and have studied both Western and Eastern modalities. Currently I am  focused in the digital and acoustic realms, digitally using my custom hybrid Roland VDrums  TD-30 set up also used in conjunction with Toontrack's Superior Drummer 3 software and as of 2023/24 my Sleishman Bubinga custom 12 piece studio recording acoustic kit.

The main DAW's in my studio are Studio One and Ableton Live Suite 11. I am using a Behringer Wing digital mixer with Midas Pro pre-amps as my audio interface in conjunction with a Behringer S32 stage box with Midas pre-amps which encompasses all the inputs and outputs I need to record both acoustic drums and digital drums comprehensively.

I have developed my own teaching products for the drum set. My studio and expertise can be employed for Online Drum Sessions, you can send me your project and will receive it back with great multi-tracked drum tracks (both midi and audio) tailored to your specific needs, played live by a pro drummer.

In November 2011 I was one of six drummers chosen to compete in the Australasian finals of the Roland VDrums competition held at Technology Park in Sydney. I hold a BA in Music Performance from Southern Cross University  Lismore NSW and a Masters Degree in Contemporary Music Practice from Box Hill Institute Melbourne Victoria.

 

My Musical Journey to Date

Born in Senegal West Africa of French parents, I migrated to Australia in 1969. My love affair with music started at age 12 and I took up playing the drums at age 14. I fell in love with jazz, fusion, ECM artists and traditional world music’s. Eventually I got back to contemporary styles such as blues, funk, R&B, rock, soul, reggae ETC. 

In the early 80’s I took up tabla and fell in love with Kyal, (North Indian classical), and later with the Carnatic music of the South, I also pursued traditions of Sacred Chant and world musics, Japanese, African and Indian. I have played in varied bands of all genders since the late 70’s. 

I completed a BA of Contemporary Music in 2004, then travelled the world for five years, mainly in Fiji, the United States and India. I studied under South Indian drumming Masters, Subash Chandran and Ganesh Kumar starting in 2005, after which I became involved in Dhrupad (a North Indian classical tradition purposed to Self Realization) and other forms of Sacred Chant functioning as an accompanist for singers. 

Back home in 2010, I began an exploration of electronic music, though since the 80’s was a big fan of Jon Hassell and Brian Eno. I am now more moved to concentrate on writing, teaching and composing. Residing in Cairns  I have set up my pro home studio offering an Online Session Service, using either my TD-30 Hybrid Roland VDrums kit or soon my full acoustic Sleishman Bubinga studio kit. Roland VDrums were my primary instrument since being chosen as one of six finalists in the Australasian VDrums competition in 2011 up until I was able to re-connect with acoustic drums in 2023, having created a facility studio wise that enabled the recording and playing of acoustic drums. 

Having completed my Masters of Contemporary Music Practice at BHI in 2016, for which I was awarded Masters student of the year,  I am preparing to undertake Doctoral studies to specifically elaborate for the Western drumset, the rhythmic research explored in my Master’s Thesis:  "Quornokol, a pedagogical instrument and musical work. A study exploring rhythmic phrasing East and West’". I also plan to publish a series of rhythmically oriented tutorial books called “Know your Subdivisions” for both beginners and intermediate music students, applicable to percussionists, instrumentalists and vocalists. Between 2017 and late 2019 I toured in the US, Europe and Fiji playing my Roland Handsonic HPD-20 percussion pad in an original world music collaboration named "Naada Om".

Coincident with my musical journey has been my spiritual adventure, therefore my orientation towards composition is one that aspires to engender in the listener a connection to source, depth and the mystery that lives and breathes us all.

Portfolio of Complete songs in Various Genres from the Roland TD-30 Library