News

Michael Gordon’s percussion sextet Timber, “six players, six two-by-fours, one hour of aural hypnosis” (TimeOut NY) is toured from Canada to Ireland to Germany and beyond by co-commissioners Slagwerk Den Haag and Mantra Percussion.

• 8 March Muziekgebouw — Amsterdam (SDH)
• 9 March Vancouver New Music — Canada (MP)
• 15 March Maerzmuzik — Berlin (SDH)
• 21 March den Toonzal — Den Bosch, Holland (SDH)
• 7 April Music Biennale Zagreb — Croatia (SDH)
• 30 April TimberRemixed — Brooklyn, NY (MP)
• 4 May Drogheda Arts Festival 2013 — Louth, Ireland (MP)
• 26 May Landgoedconcerten Oranjewoud — Langezwaag, Holland (SDH)

Recognized by The New Yorker Magazine as one of the ten most memorable performances of 2012, Timber is a mesmerizing and unique evening-length work. Scored for six graduated, amplified, wooden simantras (2x4s), Gordon shapes the music in both polyrhythmic and dynamic waves of textures.

In Timber “the glorious overtones produced from this limited array has to be heard to be believed.” (TimeOut Chicago) What can be described as an aural borealis of sound, the tones from the instruments create an incredibly beautiful mix of timbres and harmonies that float and shimmer above the ensemble. “It has a halo, an ethereal aura of sound.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)

The New York Times’ Steve Smith describes Timber’s mystical sound: “Beyond the ever-shifting rhythmic crosscurrents that give the music its vigor and hypnotic intensity, ‘Timber’ also plays on tones unique to each plank. Amplified in performance, overtones hover and fuse, conjuring eerie moans and radiant coronas.”

The New Yorker’s Alex Ross recounts that Timber produces “the richest, haziest resonances, like the ringing of sullen bells… [it] resembles ‘Drumming’, [Steve] Reich’s tour de force of the early seventies, yet it’s more jagged and eruptive.”

Timber was co-commissioned by the Dutch dance company, Club Guy and Roni and the percussion ensembles Slagwerk den Haag and Mantra Percussion.