Best Engineered Album, Classical

“Cerrone: Don’t Look Down,” Mike Tierney, engineer; Alan Silverman, mastering engineer (Sandbox Percussion)

Watch Mike Tierney’s acceptance speech here

Listen to Don’t Look Down: lnk.to/CerroneDontLookDown 

 

Dear friends:

We’re thrilled to share the great news that our 2025 album Don’t Look Down, featuring music by our friend and longtime collaborator Chris Cerrone, won a GRAMMY® Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical at the 68th Annual GRAMMY Awards. 

A huge congratulations to the winners—Mike Tierney, the album’s engineer, and Alan Silverman, the mastering engineer—whose incredible ear and technical wizardry made the album sound crisp, big, and exciting. Mike and Alan really captured the brilliance of Chris’ music, and the wide variety of percussion sounds, rhythms, melodies, grooves and noises that his meticulous scores call for. 

Thank you to our fans, Chris, the Pentatone label, all voting members, and especially Mike and Alan for their engineering work on the album, a highlight of our recording career to date. They delivered a masterclass in audio detail. Congrats!

If you’re new to Sandbox, or to Chris’ music, Don’t Look Down is a great place to start. Chris, with whom we’ve collaborated for more than 10 years, writes captivating music for traditional and unorthodox instruments, invents new playing techniques, and blends in electronics, inviting two amazing collaborators to perform with us: Conor Hanick on prepared piano for the title piece, and Elspeth Davis on vocals for Goldbeater’s Skin.

Listen to Don’t Look Down on your favorite streaming service: lnk.to/CerroneDontLookDown 

Among the multifaceted role of percussion in the current musical diaspora, perhaps one of its most important is its ability to simultaneously stretch our sonic soundworlds, yet remain accessible. Sandbox Percussion clearly manifests that on this album, [which] stretches and challenges the listeners’ ears.

— BBC Music Magazine

Multi-GRAMMY® nominee-Christopher Cerrone’s new album is a decade-long journey through sound, collaboration, and innovation. From the first sketches of Goldbeater’s Skin in 2015 to the final touches on Ode To Joy in 2023, these works reflect his deep connection and friendship with Sandbox Percussion.

Opening with Don’t Look Down (2020) featuring Conor Hanick on piano, a work born during the pandemic, the album blends traditional percussion with found objects and prepared piano and, when premiered by Sandbox Percussion and pianist Conor Hanick, was described as ‘exhilarating’ by The New York Times. A Natural History of Vacant Lots (2017) explores space and sound, positioning ambient and beautiful colors against a haunting electronic backdrop. The centerpiece, Goldbeater’s Skin (2016), pairs percussion with the human voice in a stunning setting of GC Waldrep’s poetry and features mezzo-soprano, Elspeth Davis.

The album closes with Ode to Joy (2023), a bittersweet celebration of New York City, filled with whistles, harmonicas, and stomping rhythms. Every unique sound on this album was meticulously crafted, shaped by Cerrone’s longtime collaborator and producer Mike Tierney.

Don’t Look Down is a bold exploration of the endless possibilities of percussion and a testament to the evolving power of music and collaboration. 

TRACKLIST:

Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984)

Don’t Look Down Don’t Look Down

1 I – Hammerspace (4. 46)

2 II – The Great Empty (5. 26)

3 III – Caton Flats (6. 14)

4 A Natural History of Vacant Lots (9. 01)

Goldbeater’s Skin

5 I – Apocatastasis (2. 46)

6 II – Interlude 1 – Wood (2. 12)

7 III – In My Dream (1. 51)

8 IV – Interlude 2 – Metal (1. 48)

9 V – My Companion and I (4. 07)

10 VI – Interlude III – Skin – Fatal Exception (1. 58)

11 VII – Against the Madness of Crowds (4. 12)

12 Ode to Joy (9. 42)

Sandbox Percussion

Conor Hanick, piano

Elspeth Davis, mezzo-soprano