5 players: fl, cl, pno, e gtr, cb - Simple Machine

Ensemble: flute, clarinet, piano, electric guitar, double bass

Duration: 10 minutes

Commissioned by: Ecstatic Music Festival for NOW Ensemble

Premiered: Ecstatic Music Festival, Kaufman Music Center, NYC, New York

Note:

NOW Ensemble was the first new music ensemble I was introduced to when I moved to New York City in 2009. I was immediately impressed by their shared musical language, which seemed to come from years of collaboration and deep understanding. They could switch from gestural and expressive to seamlessly mechanical at a moment's notice. Years later when Ecstatic Music Festival commissioned me to write this work, I wanted to honor that first impression, to write a work that started like a well oiled machine, and gradually found its way towards a more expressive, gestural language.