Dark Flow - Double Quartet (2013)

For Alto Saxophone, Trombone, Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Violin, Cello, Piano, Cimbalom.
12 minutes.

Dark Flow - Double Quartet was commissioned by the Musik i Syd, Sweden, with funding from the Swedish Arts Council, for performances by Ensemble Son and Either/Or in 2013 in the US (Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn) and Sweden (Malmoe, Stockholm).

Premiered by:
Ensemble Son - Magnus Andersson, Jonny Axelsson, Ivo Nilsson, Jorgen Petersson
Either/Or  - Richard Carrick, Jennifer Choi, David Shively, Alex Waterman

Premiere Performances:

October 3, 2013 - Slee Hall, University of Buffalo
October 5, 2013 - Music on the Edge Concert Series, Pittsburgh
October 9, 2013 - Roulette, Brooklyn NY
October 24, 2013 - Palladium, Connect Festival, Malmoe Sweden
October 27, 2013 - Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden

Program Note:

In astrophysics, dark flow refers to the hypothetical and unexplained flow of galaxy clusters toward a particular point in deep space.  Interestingly, some speculate this influence on galaxies comes from a part of the universe that no longer exists, but somehow still carries an influence on matter.  This "invisible pull" is something that exist deep in music as well, something strongly felt but not easily defined.

Dark Flow-Double Quartet is an overlapping series of eight musical "threads" -- Either/Or plays four (violin, piano, cimbalom, cello) and Ensemble Son three (saxophone, guitar, trombone/percussion combined).  The eighth thread is the sum total of these, drawn toward a single point: the two ensembles play simultaneously, but the synchronization is musical rather than metric, co-existing to counterpoint their different trajectories.

Dark Flow - Double Quartet was commissioned by the Musik i Syd, Sweden, with funding from the Swedish Arts Council, for performances by Ensemble Son and Either/Or in 2013 in the US (Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn) and Sweden (Malmoe, Stockholm).

Commercially released on Richard Carrick: Cycles of Evolution by New World Records #80759.