"Classical music concerts dull? I heard a Senegalese circumcision dance, and shared the life of a firefly. I whizzed through the Channel Tunnel. I went to a noisy dinner party and toured the constellation Cygnus.
This could only have been a concert by Ensemble Bash who make playing percussion the coolest, noisiest and funniest occupation on earth."
The Times (UK)
"If every late night Prom is as gripping as this we shall all be desperately short of sleep by September. Little did I imagine that I would ever miss the last bus to Hendon because of a Senegalese circumcision dance. But then, I doubt whether even the finest Senegalese circumcisionists perform with quite such relish as Ensemble Bash."
The Independent (UK)
"...gives a lie to the aphorism that 'white men can't drum'...one walked away knackered"
Weekly Spectator (Ghana)
"Haben Bleichgesichter den Groove?
Wenn ihre Seele groovt, warum nicht?"
Hamburger Morgenpost (Germany)
"Like a great string quartet or jazz group, the four percussionists of Ensemble Bash seem to have developed that almost telepathic form of ensemble communication, an empathy that allows them to play a wide range of genres with accuracy and gusto."
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
"But earlier in the day came a reminder that Birtwistle is after all a master of vast spans of time and the big elemental gesture. This was ’For O, For O, the Hobby-Horse is Forgot’, an immense musical ritual for 6 percussionists. It takes great concentration to keep this work’s underlying pulse steady despite the tumult, and great conviction to make the silent rhythmic gestures Birtwistle asks for compelling rather than self-consciously ’theatrical’. On both counts, the performers of Ensemble Bash came up trumps."
The Daily Telegraph (UK)
"...left the audience agape with shock and excitement...
nothing was more spectacular than the dexterity of these gentlemen on Ghanaian drums, playing with so much zeal as though they were localites."
The Ghanaian Chronicle (Ghana)
