PRESS PLAY Episode 56: Ecstasy & The Devil

December 19, 2024
Ecstasy & The Devil* (2024)

Ricardo Ferro (CA), composer

Tristan Durie, flute
Anthony Thompson, clarinet
Carol Lynn Fujino, violin
Paul Widner, cello
Geoffrey Conquer, piano
Ryan Scott, percussion
Gregory Oh, conductor

Programme Note:
I am fascinated by the sometimes indistinguishable line between euphoria and agony. My writing explores extreme limits in music that set up unsustainable systems that collapse under their internal logic. Ecstasy & The Devil is timbrally oversaturated, and the music, devoid of autonomy, submits to jarring cuts to and from material of entirely disparate styles. This loss of control is largely perpetuated by the use of the human voice eroded to grotesque proportions, played through a record player through which laughter becomes screaming, and where human sounds take on synthetic qualities at odds with their organic source. The ensemble’s role is as much a part of the disorienting world as a removed entity, sometimes forced by the music in its controlling nature, and sometimes seeking to break out.

* world premiere

This piece was presented as part of the PIVOT program in partnership with the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre.

Ensemble photos: Nicola Betts