Sandbox Percussion & Michael Torke Collaborate On New Album BLOOM

Sandbox Percussion, a Brooklyn-based percussion ensemble of established leaders in contemporary art music, has teamed up with the acclaimed composer Michael Torke for BLOOM, a new piece composed for the group. The world-premiere recording will be released via Ecstatic Records on August 30; it will be available on all major streaming platforms. Two digital singles, for which Sandbox Percussion commissioned music videos from past collaborator Michael McQuilken, will be released on YouTube in early August. Physical copies of the full album will be available on October 18.

BLOOM, which Sandbox Percussion plans to play live on the road, uses a series of interlocking rhythms that create a groove when played together, using each player's drums (non-pitched instruments), and vibraphone and marimbas (pitched). "Just as shoots of plants push through dirt erupting in blooms, the vibes and marimbas burst forth from the drums," writes Torke in his program notes. "In other words, this music has an organic profile, unlike other recent pieces of mine."

The hourlong piece for percussion quartet was performed and recorded for the album by Sandbox Percussion members Victor Caccese (playing vibraphone and two bongos), Jonny Allen (vibraphone and two congas), Terry Sweeney (marimba and five wooden slats), and Ian Rosenbaum (marimba and four tom-toms).

BLOOM is structured in three sets - Bloom 1, Bloom 2, and Bloom 3 - each divided into three movements: "morning," "noon," and "night." Two slower movements, Stem 1 and Stem 2, are interspersed between the Bloom sets. The drums represent the earth out of which the shoots grow, which in turn are represented by the mallet instruments.

Much of Torke's music has a rhythmic profile, a physical pulse through which he takes classic minimalism to new expressive spheres, also influenced by neoclassicism and a strong sense of color. "Michael uses rhythm in his music in an intrinsic way," says Rosenbaum, who previously recorded percussion parts for Torke's albums PSALMS AND CANTICLES, TIME, and UNSEEN, which led to the collaboration with the full group.

"Almost as soon as I started playing his music, I had the feeling that Michael and Sandbox would be a good match," Rosenbaum adds. "Rhythms are the building blocks of the structure of many of his pieces, driving forward the emotion and the energy. It's inspiring to find a composer who uses rhythm in a new and innovative way; we learned a lot from Michael and from this piece about how to 'melodicize' a rhythm."

"He also challenged us technically: In some of the more complicated parts, Michael asks us each to create a composite melody that is split between our keyboard percussion instruments and drums - that's a particular challenge we had never encountered before."

Although Torke usually includes a colorful array of percussion instruments in his orchestral and chamber works - tambourine, claves, cymbals, tubular bells, glockenspiel, xylophone, and vibraphone, among many others - and in 2001 composed a percussion concerto, Rapture, BLOOM is his first piece for percussion quartet alone.

"No group I've worked with is as committed, both to their artistry in general and to the specific project at hand, as Sandbox Percussion," says Torke. The group first saw the work in progress in November 2023, and by May 2024 had learned and recorded the completed piece. "It turns out that the kind of music I write is the kind of music they do very well, so it is an optimal match."

"My endeavor is to carve out a place in the musical real estate - to find an expression that is unique enough to take up space in the repertory," Torke adds. "Whether I succeed, time will be the judge."

BLOOM, for percussion quartet

• Written for, performed, and recorded by Sandbox Percussion
• Composed by Michael Torke
• Full album digital release: August 30
• Physical album release: October 18
• Label: Ecstatic Records
• Distributor: Sony/The Orchard
• Duration: 54:00

Movements:
Bloom 1, morning
Bloom 1, noon
Bloom 1, night
Stem 1
Bloom 2, morning
Bloom 2, noon
Bloom 2, night
Stem 2
Bloom 3, morning
Bloom 3, noon
Bloom 3, night

Performers and instrumentation:

• player 1 (Victor Caccese): vibraphone, 2 bongos
• player 2 (Jonny Allen): vibraphone, 2 congas
• player 3 (Terry Sweeney): marimba, 5 wooden slats
• player 4 (Ian Rosenbaum): marimba, 4 tom-toms

More about Sandbox Percussion

Described as "exhilarating" by The New York Times and "utterly mesmerizing" by The Guardian, GRAMMY-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion brings out the best in composers through their unwavering dedication to artistry in contemporary chamber music, engaging a wider audience for classical music through multidisciplinary collaborations with leading composers and artists. Sandbox Percussion received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2024; it is the first-ever percussion ensemble to receive the prestigious award.

This season, Sandbox Percussion released the album Wilderness, featuring the piece of the same name by experimental composer Jerome Begin. The hour-long work seamlessly fuses the raw impact of live percussion instruments with electronic manipulations in real time. Last season, Sandbox Percussion released Bathymetry, featuring music for percussion and analog synthesizer by Matt McBane. The album draws from various strains of minimalism and modern electronic music production, and from ASMR and ambient modular synth videos. In 2020, the ensemble released their debut album, And That One Too, featuring music by Andy Akiho, David Crowell, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Thomas Kotcheff.

Besides maintaining an international performance schedule, Sandbox Percussion holds the position of ensemble-in-residence and percussion faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and The New School's College of Performing Arts, where they have created a curriculum with entrepreneurship and chamber music at its core. In 2016, Sandbox Percussion founded the Sandbox Percussion Seminar, a weeklong seminar for today's leading repertoire for percussion chamber music.

In 2022, Sandbox Percussion launched their Creator Mentorship Program, a commissioning program that solicits proposals from early-career creators around the world. The selected creators are commissioned to create a new work for the ensemble, and they receive time, space, and funding for a yearlong workshop and development period.

Sandbox Percussion endorses Pearl/Adams musical instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Black Swamp accessories. Find out more at sandboxpercussion.com.

More about Michael Torke

Composer Michael Torke's work has been described as "some of the most optimistic, joyful and thoroughly uplifting music to appear in recent years" (Gramophone). He has been hailed as a "vitally inventive composer" (Financial Times), and "a master orchestrator whose shimmering timbral palette makes him the Ravel of his generation" (New York Times). He has created a substantial body of works in virtually every genre; his recent piece SKY, for violinist Tessa Lark, was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize and was nominated for a Grammy award for "best classical instrument solo."

Torke has been commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey, National Ballet of Canada, Metropolitan Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, English National Opera, the London Sinfonietta, Lontano, De Volharding, and the Smith, Ying, and Amstel quartets, among other prestigious orchestras, ballet companies, and ensembles.

He has worked with conductors Simon Rattle, Kurt Mazur, Edo de Waart, and David Zinman; choreographers Christopher Wheeldon, James Kudelka, and Juri Kilian; librettists A. R. Gurney, Michael Korie, and Mark Campbell; and directors Des McAnuff, Bart Sher, and Michael Greif, among others.

Torke has been commissioned by entities as diverse as the Walt Disney Company and Absolute Vodka; worked with soloists such as Tessa Lark, Christopher O'Reilly, and Joyce Castle; and written incidental music for The Public Theater, The Old Globe Theater, and Classic Stage Company, among others. He has also been composer-in-residence with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Beginning his career with exclusive contracts with Boosey and Hawkes, and Decca Records, Torke now controls his own copyrights and masters through his publishing company, Adjustable Music, and record company, Ecstatic Records. Find out more at michaeltorke.com.

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