Sandbox Percussion’s Tiny Desk Concert Out Now!
We’re really excited to join the A-list of performers from across all genres who have appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk, the popular stripped-down live-music series that has become a true 21st-century pop culture phenomenon. It’s a dream come true.
Our group has always been shaped by the composers we work with, who have helped make Sandbox what it is, and we’ve chosen two very special people for the program. We met Viet in college, and have worked with him on many projects, from Water, Wine, Brandy, Brine to Re(new)al, his fantastic concerto for Sandbox and orchestra. We also met Andy in school, the creative force behind Seven Pillars.
If you’re new to Seven Pillars, Andy’s ambitious composition for percussion quartet — it is structured as a large-scale palindrome and consists of seven ensemble movements and one solo movement for each percussionist. The piece got us our GRAMMY nomination and was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It was featured in the New York Times. For Tiny Desk we picked “Pillar III,” meticulously scored by Akiho for vibraphone, crotales, bass drum, tuned metal pipes, cigar box, glass bottle, metal jug, and kick drum.
It was a great experience to perform Seven Pillars in full last fall at the Beijing Music Festival, our China debut. This year, we are embarking on a new collaboration with Andy joining us on steelpan.
At Tiny Desk, Andy gives us a taste of that upcoming project by playing steelpan with us on Karakurenai (“foreign crimson”). The 2007 piece was originally written for solo prepared steelpan, but it can be performed on any combination of instruments and is open to improvisation. We play it here on tuned ceramic bowls, wooden slats, metal pipes, and pandeiro.
For Water, Wine, Brandy, Brine, composed for 15 tuned crystal glasses, Viet was inspired by the 17th-century book Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica, by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. In the chapter “The Magnetism of Music,” Kircher details an experiment in which he fills four wine glasses with liquids of various densities: aqua vitae (brandy), wine, pure water, and a coarse liquid like saltwater or oil. Kircher observed that each solution reacted differently when played; Viet elaborates on that to explore “the various sounds that can be produced from playing crystal glasses as musical instruments,” according to his program note, “from the bell-like sounds of ‘toasting’ the glasses, to the theremin-like singing produced when the rims are played.”
To check out our Tiny Desk concert, click HERE. Thank you for watching and feel free to share!
All our gratitude to NPR for having us. Thank you.
Sandbox Percussion: The Tiny Desk Concert
Pillar III (Andy Akiho)
Water, Wine, Brandy and Brine (Viet Cuong)
Karakurenai (Andy Akiho), with Akiho on steelpan
L-R: Akiho, Rosenbaum, Allen, Caccese, Sweeney, and Cuong
If you’re new to Tiny Desk:
The Tiny Desk concert series began in 2008 as a niche online platform, initially showcasing up-and-coming rock and folk artists. Today, it has established itself as one of the premiere music platforms in the world, including performers from across all genres. The YouTube channel for NPR Music, which hosts Tiny Desk, has 10.9 million subscribers.