NOW Ensemble is celebrating their tenth year together, fourth full-length release, third album of chamber repertoire, and third release from New Amsterdam all at once with Dreamfall. The album is out May 26, and in commemoration, they’re here to dance around a bit to its finale, “City Boy.” The New York-based NOW Ensemble, now working as a septet, includes Mark Dancigers, Sara Budde, Patrick Burke, Logan Coale, Judd Greenstein, Michael Mizrahi, and Alexandra Sopp. Guitarist and composer Dancigers described Dreamfall as “a state of immense freedom… The sounds on this record reflect this freedom, this sense of something a little out of our hands, and, beyond all else, the practice of making music that is NOW Ensemble.”
Dreamfall is a sprawling feat, with compositions from (in order of appearance) Scott Smallwood, Dancigers, John Supko, Nathan Williamson, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Andrea Mazzariello, and Greenstein, who all take the helm at least once – Dancigers for the three-part title track – during the 76-minute album. The song we’re dancing around today is “City Boy,” Greenstein’s appendage of Dreamfall. The Greenwich Village-born contemporary classical composer and New Amsterdam Records co-founder molds one of Dreamfall’s more lucid pieces: a wordless ramble of a child, still free of worry and judgement, free and blind, stumbling through a market of colors and shoes and great clutter. Voices ring in with barks and transactions. The mother is near but distance is irrelevant; the kid might as well be out at sea. He’s a city boy.
Pre-order Dreamfall through New Amsterdam Records digitally and on CD via Bandcamp, and find NOW Ensemble’s upcoming schedule on their events page.
• NOW Ensemble: http://www.nowensemble.com
• NOW Ensemble: https://nowensemble.bandcamp.com
• New Amsterdam: http://newamrecords.com
More about: NOW Ensemble
