Canto Ostinato

Description

I first heard Canto Ostinato in 2020, and it sparked a true fascination. I was captivated by its unique blend of harmony, repetition, and rhythm. In the spring of 2023, I composed and released my own solo interpretation, and at the time, I thought my collaboration with the work was complete. But I had underestimated its captivating power. The following year, I was once again under its spell, invited by Andrew Cyr of the Metropolis Ensemble to develop the work I had started. Soon after, I found myself in Brooklyn, with a newly formed team of six musicians including Cyr and members of Sandbox Percussion, thrilled to contribute to the creation of a brand new large ensemble arrangement of Canto Ostinato, intended for a summer solstice concert at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We did it, our group expanding to include students from the Sandbox Percussion Summer Seminar at the New School, as well as composers David Leon, Ben Wallace, and Ledah Finck and the Bergamot Quartet. It was an unforgettable day – grand, dreamlike, a perfect culmination. But even then… the work continued to call to us, and it seemed to us that this new orchestration deserved to be the subject of a studio album, a permanent testament to our collective passion. Refined for a year and recorded in New York in 2025, this interpretation reinvents the work in a formidable structure of mallet percussion, woodwinds, strings, and piano. It is our most authentic attempt to convey the beauty and grandeur of Canto Ostinato in all its kaleidoscopic harmony, dynamism, tension, and appeasement. I am once again enthralled by Simeon ten Holt's monumental creation, and having contributed to weaving this very special soundscape is one of the greatest pleasures of my musical life. I don't think we'll have this chance again… but who knows… —Erik Hall