Claire Chase & JACK Quartet: Terry Riley's The Holy Liftoff

Density 2036 is Chase's 24-year commitment to building new repertory for the flute, aimed at the 2036 centenary of Varèse's Density 21.5. The New York Times and The New Yorker have both singled it out as one of the more significant long-form commissioning projects in contemporary music, and each new instalment carries that weight.

The Holy Liftoff began in 2022 as an open sketchbook, Riley working in drawings and fragments rather than a fixed score. Over two years those sketches grew into a piece that mixes through-composed writing with graphic notation and Riley's characteristic open-form scoring, material that performers can shape in duration and ensemble formation. Samuel Clay Birmaher built the hour-long realisation heard here, working closely with Riley and the players, scored for multiple flutes and string quartet with JACK.

Riley has described the piece arriving almost fully formed, chords and drawings together, and has said it could only have been written for Chase.

I haven't heard it yet (although the release is on my desk already), but that combination, a score this open-ended paired with a performer this exacting, is definitely reason enough to pay attention.