Ross Bolleter (born 1946, Subiaco, Western Australia) is a composer and musician whose work is focused on ruined pianos.
His recordings are available on Thödol Music, France; Emanem (London); Pogus (New York); New Albion (San Francisco) and Tall Poppies (Sydney), as well as on his WARPS (World Association for Ruined Piano Studies) label.
Bolleter found inspiration in the eighties playing and recording improvised music with flautist Tos Mahoney and double bassist, Ryszard Ratajczak.
A piano is ruined (rather than neglected or devastated) when it has been abandoned to all weathers and has become a decaying box of unpredictable dongs, tonks and dedoomps.
At Kim Hack's and Penny Mossops's olive farm, Wambyn, near York, Western Australia, Kim Hack and Bolleter developed the Ruined Piano Sanctuary, where some forty pianos are ruining in their own ways, and at their own pace, variously under trees, in dams, and on roofs.
In 1989 Bolleter set up the Synchronicity Project where he devised a series of intuitive pieces where musicians improvised simultaneously but in different centres in Australia and across the world.
Bolleter has performed with a variety of artists including Kavisha Mazzella, Tos Mahoney, Ryszard Ratajczak, Mark Cain, K.K.Null, Jim Denley, Jon Rose, David Moss, Simone de Haan, Michal Murin, Zdenek Plachy, Milan Adanciak, Stephen Scott, David Kotlowy, and Richard Lynn – as well as with bands such as the Black Eyed Susans.
A book of one hundred prose poems entitled Blind Summits by Christopher Konrad and Ross Bolleter was published by Sunline Press in 2020.
Bolleter's book Average Human Heart, which includes one hundred "left hand" stories as well as prose poems, was published by Editions Lenka Lente in 2022.
His volume of poems, Track me Down (Retrouve me trace) is due for publication in a bilingual edition (English and French) by Editions Lenka Lente in December 2024. International Releases Crow Country, Pogus, New York, P21021-2,2000 Secret Sandhills and satellites, Emanem 4128 (London), 2006 Night Kitchen, Emanem 5008, London, 2010 Ross Bolleter’s Total Piano, volumes 1-4 was released by Vincent Capes's Thödol Music, France, in July 2021.It features a booklet of Antoinette Carrier's subtle and lovely photographs of ruined pianos.
(Also released on Thödol Music, France,2023) Ross Bolleter, The Colour of a Thousand Miles (to Matias Rodriguez-Mourino for the inspiration of his book A PIANO IN MORILLE), WARPS W34(2024).
Ross Bolleter's book of left-hand stories entitled Average Human Heart published by Editions Lenka Lente Press, France, in October 2022.
Ross Bolleter's volume of poems Track Me Down/Retrouve ma trace is due for publication by Editions Lenka Lente in December,2024.
- Ross Bolleter: Dongshan's Songbook: Reflections on the "Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi" and Other Zen Poems (Wisdom Publications, Massachusetts.)
- Average Human Heart: left hand stories (Editions Lenka Lente, 2022) - The Crow Flies Backwards and Other New Zen Koans (Wisdom Publications, Massachusetts, 2018).
- Fostering Creative Improvisation at the Keyboard: A Handbook for Piano Teachers (1979) In preparation: Bolleter, Zen and the Passions.