We’re excited to announce our upcoming album BLOOM, with new music composed for us by  Michael Torke, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. BLOOM is his first piece for percussion quartet and this is the world-premiere recording, coming out via Ecstatic Records on August 30 and available on all major streaming platforms.

We also got Michael McQuilken, our great collaborator for Seven Pillars, to shoot music videos for two singles that will be released on YouTube this month. Physical copies of the full album will be available on October 18. 

BLOOM uses a series of interlocking rhythms that create a groove when played together with each player’s drums (non-pitched instruments), and vibraphone and marimbas (pitched). “Just as shoots of plants push through dirt erupting in blooms, the vibes and marimbas burst forth from the drums,” says Michael. “This music has an organic profile, unlike other recent pieces of mine.”

For the hourlong piece, which we plan to play live on the road later, Victor plays vibraphone and two bongos; Jonny, vibraphone and two congas; Terry, marimba and five wooden slats; and Ian, marimba and four tom-toms.

BLOOM is structured in three sets — Bloom 1, Bloom 2, and Bloom 3 — each divided into three movements: “morning,” “noon,” and “night.” Two slower movements, Stem 1 and Stem 2, are interspersed between the Bloom sets. The drums represent the earth out of which the shoots grow, which in turn are represented by the mallet instruments. 

If you don’t know Michael’s music yet, it’s great; it has a very rhythmic profile, a physical pulse through which he takes classic minimalism to new grounds, with influences from neoclassicism and a strong sense of color. Check out his bluegrass-classical violin concerto SKY, which got the Pulitzer finalist nod.

Ian had previously recorded percussion parts for Michael’s albums PSALMS AND CANTICLES, TIME, and UNSEEN, which led to this new collaboration with all of Sandbox. We felt that this would be a great match from the beginning.

Rhythms are the building blocks of the structure of many of Michael’s pieces, driving forward the emotion and the energy. It’s inspiring to find a composer who uses rhythm in a new and innovative way; we learned a lot from BLOOM about how to ‘melodicize’ a rhythm. Michael also challenged us technically: In some of the more complicated parts, he asked us each to create a composite melody that is split between our keyboard percussion instruments and drums — that’s a particular challenge we had never encountered before.

We look forward to sharing the full album with you. Stay tuned for the singles and videos, before the full-album release on August 30.

BLOOM, for percussion quartet

• Written for, performed, and recorded by Sandbox Percussion
• Composed by Michael Torke
• Full album digital release: August 30
• Physical album release: October 18
• Label: Ecstatic Records