In 2014 flutist Claire Chase launched a 22-year project to commission a significant body of new music for the flute. She called the project “Density 2036,” because that year would mark the 100th anniversary of “Density 21.5,” a short piece for solo flute composed by Edgard Varèse in 1936. One week from today, Sono Luminus will release a complete recording of the eleventh effort in Chase’s project. The result, entitled The Holy Liftoff, is a suite of 22 movements having a wide diversity of durations, all composed for Chase by Terry Riley.
Riley began his work in 2022, working with “an open score sketchbook brimming with colorful drawings.” Interpretation of the pages of that sketchbook was then managed by Samuel Clay Birmaher, resulting in a hour’s worth of conventional music notation, scored for multiple flutes and string quartet. Chase then worked with the members of the JACK Quartet (violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, John Pickford Richards in viola, and cellist Jay Campbell) and recorded a 60-minute realization of Birmaher’s score.
Album cover of The Holy Liftoff (courtesy of Sono Luminus)
One week from today, that realization will be available for “public listening.” It will be released on a Sono Luminus album also entitled The Holy Liftoff. Curious readers will be happy to know that Amazon.com has already created a Web page for taking pre-orders!
It is also worth noting that, prior to this release, the entire composition has had “history” here in San Francisco. When Chase gave her San Francisco Performances recital in Herbst Theatre this past April 18, she coupled The Holy Liftoff with Riley’s “Pulsing Lifters,” which she performed with pianist Sarah Cahill. That said, the one-hour album serves up diversity in many ways, not only in the music but also in the playful titles of the individual movements. Hopefully, this new album will engage the attention of those that listened to Chase this past April, those familiar with past Riley recordings, and those with an adventurous spirit!
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