Seth Cluett and TAK Ensemble at Roulette

Internationally recognized composer Seth Cluett is the focus of TAK Ensemble’s opening concert of the 2024/25 season. The show features two world premieres by Cluett: his hourlong score ‘irreversible histories of disturbance,’ featuring homemade instruments invented by the composer, and a short video work, ‘the reformation of assemblages,’ an experimental documentation of an outdoor performance exploring the sounds of seed pods, pine cones, leaves, and downed branches.

Exploring the territory between the senses, Cluett’s slow, quiet works are marked by a detailed attention to perception and to the role of sound in the creation of a sense of place, the workings of memory, and the experience of time. His pieces are driven by themes of ecological collapse and resilience, often expressed through materials found in nature. Processes relating to time-cycles, symbiosis, causation, erosion, disturbance, crisis, decay, and growth all serve as catalysts for musical interaction.