Michael Gordon's Timber

Mantra Percussion with Michael Gordon

For booking please email Peter Robles at Serious Music Media

Watch Gordon discuss Timber

Watch NPR video feature of Timber

Michael Gordon's Timber is an evening-length tour de force. Scored for six graduated, amplified, wooden Simantras (2x4s). The work brings the physicality, endurance and technique of percussion performance to a new level. In this work, Gordon shapes the music in both polyrhythmic and dynamic waves of textures — often each players' hands are in separate rhythmic 'worlds', each traversing a different dynamic contour from loud to soft to loud, similar in some respects to his solo for percussion, XY.

Much of Gordon's music demonstrates a deep exploration into the extreme possibilities and stunning nature of rhythm, as well as the enriching, yet disturbing, multidimensionality of polyrhythmic layers — what has been termed in his music to be, "glorious confusion." Many of his works including Trance, Gotham, Decasia, and Dystopia point to Gordon's interest in complex rhythmic and textural territory. Timber takes these elements and explores the extreme possibilities of rhythm and texture to a beautifully intense degree. The evening-length work is indeed a unique and exciting addition to the world of percussion.

Timber was co-commissioned by the Dutch dance company, Club Guy and Roni, Slagwerk den Haag, Mantra Percussion, with support from the Nief-Norf project.