Just Ancient Loops
Maya Beiser, cello; Bill Morrison, film
A multimedia work for solo cello and 19 pre-recorded cellos, with film by Bill Morrison employing high-resolution scans of ancient nitrate footage and newly created CGI renderings depicting different views of Heaven. Commissioned by The MELA Foundation (2012). NPR Top 10 Classical Albums of 2012. Over 40 live performances and international film festivals have included Eye Filmmuseum, MIT's Center for Arts, Science and Technology, The Louvre, BAM Next Wave Festival, Ojai Music Festival, MoMA, Stuttgart Ballet, Strings of Autumn, Sundance, AFI Fest, and Bang on a Can.
Track Listing
- 01 Just Ancient Loops I. Genesis 10:08
- 02 Just Ancient Loops II. Chorale 5:37
- 03 Just Ancient Loops III. Ascension 8:38
Video
Photos
“Just Ancient Loops, with its evocative drone and pizzicato opening, unfolds like a journey. The music, with its blend of East and West, soars in interlocking swirls of color, rests in a central chorale and builds steam to an ecstatic conclusion, sounding as if it has always been here.”
More Press
“…an exalting, almost breathless new plane… Michael Harrison's Just Ancient Loops lifted the evening to an exalting, almost breathless new plane. The 25-minute work (built on just intonation, ancient modes and electronic loops) opens innocuously, with buoyant riffs over a quiet drone, and you think you're in for a travelogue. But its power builds with unstoppable force, deepening and expanding with irresistible energy, and by the climax Beiser was filling the hall with a vast ecstatic ocean of sound.”
“If there really is a music of the spheres, the sound of a fundamental harmony in the universe, it has to be Just Ancient Loops… propels viewers through time and space, landing them in the present, elated…”
“The Bang on a Can Marathon is always good for a spectacle or two. The day's glitziest work was Michael Harrison's Just Ancient Loops, which cellist Maya Beiser performed along with some 20 electronic versions of herself and accompanying video work by Bill Morrison…”
“Michael Harrison's Just Ancient Loops, an appealing mix of live and recorded cello lines, raga-inspired drones and Minimalist rhythms performed by Maya Beiser, was enhanced by Bill Morrison's film, recorded on archival and decaying celluloid, and repurposed for Georges Méliès-style fantasy and sublimity.”
“The word 'maverick' is overused in the contemporary music world. But in the case of composer Michael Harrison and cellist Maya Beiser, the descriptor is deserved.”
“…a wonderful soundscape… absolutely stunning. Harrison uses raga-inspired drones, minimalist rhythms and textures, and beautiful melodies to encompass us in a wonderful soundscape all inspired by ancient modes. The purity and beauty that is obtained from the cello in this piece is… absolutely stunning.”
“…the evening's longest and most appealing piece: Michael Harrison and Bill Morrison's Just Ancient Loops. Also touched by raga-style drones, modal and minimalist influences, Harrison's three-part suite gloriously demonstrated the alluring power of those mathematically and musically beautiful intervals. It was probably the most purely beautiful performance I've ever experienced at TBA.”