Composition Commission for Ensemble Nikel (2025)

Lynn Book was commissioned by the Swiss new music group Ensemble Nikel to create a composition for their U.S. ‘Road Trip’ tour in summer 2025, which began in New York City, then to Baltimore, Washington D.C. and finally to North Carolina, where Book performed with the ensemble in Durham at Sanctuary. Book’s score is a structured improvisation that includes symbolic notation derived from laptop signs and directives that indicate dynamics of tempo, volume, duration, etc. She also scored vocal passages for the musicians who played electric guitar, electric keyboard/synth, saxophone and drums/percussion. Text written and performed by Book draws from fragmented writing by the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Anaxagoras. His cosmic discoveries around 450 B.C.E. are recast for a world threatened by climatological changes.

Click on the above image to view a PDF of the vocal/music score.