Now, Pasquinelli is stepping into the spotlight as a solo artist with Heartbeat Drumming®, a project that redefines the art of drumming. The idea behind it is simple: Pasquinelli is drumming at the pace of his own heartbeat, in real time. 

His debut solo recording ‘HEARTBEAT DRUMMING: Bellmund Session’ is set to release on April 25th, 2025.

Showcasing an innovative and imaginative concept Pasquinelli has been dreaming of for over a decade, the record combines philosophical depth with raw human musical expression. It stands as a foil to the pervasive AI trend, reminding us of what makes us human: our heartbeat, our imperfection and transience, and the profound ability to experience it all. 

“Playing the drums in this way is an intense, I’d even say transcendent experience. I take my heart as an unsteady natural metronome, while constantly adapting the pace of my drumming. Connected to my inner beat, I am simultaneously suspended between total freedom and total dependence at the same time, while the conscious and the subconscious ‘me’  work together. AI may become smarter and more musical than we are, but it will never play to its own heartbeat!”

The album is made up of a 37 minute one-take performance recorded live in front of an audience at Mazzive Sound Studios in Bellmund, Switzerland with no edits or overdubbing done in post-production. A venture into a wide open improvised landscape, the recording captures the energy, immediacy and urgency of the intimate performance constructed around the limitation of playing drums at the tempo of an evolving heartbeat. Contextualising Pasquinelli’s inspired drumming is a multi-layered soundscape of ambient drones the drummer recorded in advance and played back during the show, 

“Heartbeat Drumming® makes no claim to technical perfection or steadiness in the conventional sense. Rather, it is music that emerges from a playful dialogue between the performer’s body and mind, on the one hand, and his environment, on the other. Every time I perform heartbeat drumming, it reminds me of how vulnerable we are, and how fragile what we take for granted is. Our heart accompanies us every day, so let’s not forget to listen to it every now and again.”