Jon Mueller at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee on May 19, 2025

Drummer Jon Mueller has been part of various groups including Pele, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Volcano Choir (with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver fame) as well as Death Blues. Mueller has appeared on over 100 album releases, including several on the Table of the Elements and Important Records labels.

   

He opened for Takaat at the Cactus Club back in May, producing a hypnotic solo drum set that appropriately held the audience in a trance-like state throughout. It was a demonstration of sheer stamina and quite impressive in its hard-edged aesthetics.

As the promotional material for one of his past tours describes it: "Jon Mueller's Afterlife Cartoons are solo acoustic percussion performances that use repetitive tom patterns and subtle shifts in grid-like pulsing to instigate overtones, phasing, and choir-like acoustic phenomena that transform the work from mere drum solo to the sonic illusion of a small orchestra. Rhythmic minimalism, contemporary phrasing, and energetic sustain drive Mueller's improvisations into a space somewhere between modern electronic music and primal drumming, inspiring audiences toward movement and contemplation."

Purchase his most recent album here.

Recording information:

JON MUELLER


2025-05-19
Milwaukee, WI
Cactus Club

Jon Mueller: drums

Setlist:
01 solo drum performance (38:53)

Total time = 38:53

Microphones: Line Audio CM3 in ORTF
Additional source: excellent soundboard feed from Alex
Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre6ii at 32/96
Software: Audacity, Fission, xAct

Recorded with permission by Richard Hayes for this blog

downloads:

16bit, 44.1 kHz FLAC files (225 MB)

these lossless files can be burned to CDR, if you are into that sort of thing

320 kbps mp3 files (100 MB)

highest quality lossy mp3 files possible 

here is a video of Jon's performance at Elastic Arts in Chicago in 2022: