The line of delineation is very pronounced. You're either a drum solo person or, when the drum solo starts, you race out to get a beer so you can wash down some aspirin.

If indeed you do enjoy drum solos, the level of appreciation can vary greatly depending on the chops of the drummer and the sophistication of the listener. On one hand, county fairs all over North America are full of fist-pumping rock dudes nodding with happy satisfaction as someone like Robbie Bachman pounds his kit in rudimentary fashion as a prelude just before BTO cranks into "Takin' Care of Business."

There are those who would sniff with disdain at such things, though, believing the domain of the drum solo only can be handled by a small group of elite polyrhythmic super-wizards such as Roy Haynes, Neil Peart, Willie Green, Gavin Harrison, Johnny Vidacovich or Marco Minneman.

Less contemplated is a third category - one comprised of conceptual artists like the So Percussion ensemble or Man Forever (aka cs). These are drummers who combine insane levels of virtuosity with boundary-exploding ideas of the role of percussion within musical composition. Standard song structures and rote classical, jazz and rock instrumentation are kicked to the curb as the artists incorporate a new and exploratory rhythmic vision.

On Sunday, as part of the Hygienic Art Park's Serious Fun music series, Man Forever and So Percussion perform together in support of a collaborative CD called "Ryonen."

It's an interesting collision of musicians and ideas. So Percussion - who performed in 2013 on The Day's Live Lunch Break series - is comprised of four graduates of the Yale School of Music. Over several years, taking cues from minimalists like Steve Reich and Iannis Xenakis, they've evolved their exotic and interlocking patterns as hypnotic and stunning musical puzzles.

Colpitts, though, emerged from an underground rock background as a founding member of the Brooklyn psychedelic band Oneida and as the touring drummer for Spiritualized. On his own, increasingly expansive fusion of punk spirit and intricately configured repetitions established Man Forever as a highly respected force in conceptual new music.

Over two long tracks, "Ryonen" spins out cyclical and clustered constellations of rhythm and energy that seduce and overwhelm the listener in the fashion of those visual artworks that, the longer you stare at them, reveal hidden images and figures. Listening to "Ryonen" is like watching a Force Five hurricane develop from wind and mist in your living room.

Last week, from a tour stop in Knoxville, Colpitts called to talk about All Things Drum and his collaboration with So Percussion.

On the idea that certain cities or cultures have an omnipresent rhythmic identity - the accents of Jamaican ska or reggae, the triplets of a Texas shuffle, or New Orleans' second-line double-clutch rhythms - the beats are essentially coded in residents' DNA:

"The idea of the cultural DNA certainly resonates, and it would have been amazing to grow up in one of those places where your parents and siblings and neighbors are all playing these drum patterns all the time. You're gonna grow up feeling it. (Laughs.) Unfortunately, that's not my experience. I grew up in Litchfield County and it's definitely not the most rhythmic place. I had to seek it out and it's something you have to work hard to capture where maybe it wouldn't have been if I'd grown up somewhere else."

On his evolution as a drummer:

"In high school, I remember one of my friends being a drummer. There weren't that many people playing drums and I just liked the idea of being in a band. It looked like fun and I loved music. There was this unused drum kit at school pand I started playing around on it and I thought, 'Okay, I could do this.' And a week later I was in a band. The best part was that I didn't realize how hard it was to do. Just listening, nothing seemed that inaccessible to me, and by the time I figured out how incredibly difficult it was, I was already taking lessons and was already hooked."

Through listening to jazzers like Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, and playing in the experimental rock band Oneida, Colpitts started to have his own compositional and performance ideas. On how a solo album deal and Lou Reed's experimental, droning and feedback-drenched "Metal Machine Music" pushed him to the next level:

"I'd started to develop my own musical vocabulary and, in 2009, an offer came in from Oneida's label, JagJaguwar, to make a solo album. I'd never even thought about such a thing. Then I saw a performance of Ulrich Krieger's transcription of Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music' for chamber orchestra. It was incredible and beautiful - and the other thing that cracked the code was the performance's program notes outlined how Reed made that record. He'd tuned the guitars to fifths and then Krieger transcribed the overtones for a chamber ensemble.

"That made me remember a conversation with my friend Brian Chase from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs about how he'd detuned his drums, And I thought maybe I could do something like 'Metal Machine' if I detuned my drums and changed the pitch speed of the recording. And that's what got me started thinking about bigger, conceptual pieces. Ultimately, that's how the 'Ryonen' project was able to happen."

On whether the work with So Percussion is strictly scripted or there's room for improvisation:

"It's a little of both, actually. The guys in So Percussion are so good I knew I wasn't going to write anything they couldn't play. There's a bit of improv in that we're doing these different melodic phrases that keep repeating but they also change. There's form to it and we follow that form but there is a bit of open-endedness, as well. It's also very difficult to play and, that way, every night is different for the audience and for the band."

On what the crowd can expect of the Man Forever/So Percussion show:

"People aren't necessarily a captive audience in the places we're playing. (Laughs.) Usually I find that folks who sorta know what they're getting into are folks with a bit of an open mind and who might be interested in this type of experience. But we've also seen that people who just walk in off the street can find it exciting. What we're doing is on an incredibly small scale in terms of commercial appeal. To have more of a regular thing with a broader appeal would be good, of course, but we're having fun and, ultimately and artistically, we're doing what we want to do."

IF YOU GO

Who: So Percussion with Man Forever

When: 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: Hygienic Art Park, 79 Bank St., New London

How much: $10

Don't forget: So Percussion performed on The Day's "Live Lunch Break" series, and that show is archived at theday.com/section/medialivelunch

For more information: (860) 443-8001