Ecstatic Music: Tak Plays Brook

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Honored with 2021 Fromm Commissioning Award from Harvard University, MacADowell Fellowship, Salvatore Martirano Composition Award, Ettelson Composer’s Award, Chamber Music of California’s »California Prize«, and Nicola de Lorenzo Prize (three times), Selim Göncü aims to create a personal balance of contrasting polarities in his music. Raw gestures are contrasted with transparent textures, elegant timbres are interrupted/combined with abrupt impulses, obsessively-mechanical loops are interpolated with freely flowing improvisations.

His works have been performed by acclaimed ensembles including Ensemble InterContemporain, L’Instant Donné, Ensemble Proton Bern, Ensemble Échappé, Quatuor Tana, Stadler Quartett, East Coast Chamber Ensemble and Alarm Will Sound in festivals such as ManiFeste, Festival Musica, Firenze Suona Contemporanea, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik and Missouri International Composers Festival.

Selim graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with the highest distinction and currently continues his doctoral studies in composition at University of California, Berkeley. His primary teachers are Franck Bedrossian, Clemens Gadenstätter and Edmund Campion.

He currently is Composer-in-Residence of New York based new music sinfonietta Ensemble Échappé and is contributing director of sfSound.

Regarded as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), TAK delivers energetic performances "that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.” (WIRE Magazine). The ambitious ensemble “impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity” (New Sounds, WQXR). Dedicated to the commissioning of new works and direct collaboration with artists working in a variety of disciplines, TAK promotes ambitious programming at the highest level. 
 The quintet has released four albums to critical acclaim, including Oor (2019), which launched their in-house media label TAK editions. This label creates broadly accessible platforms for audience engagement with a host of new music media with a focus on original TAK content. The ensemble's Youtube videos have been viewed 15,000 times, and the TAK Editions Podcast has received over 5,000 listens from across the globe.

'Love, Crystal and Stone' by Ashkan Behzadi out on TAK editions 5/10/22

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TAK’s operations occur on Lenape lands—Lenapehoking; we acknowledge the Lenpae as the original people of this land and their continuing relationship with their territory.

One-time bassist and trumpeter looking for the stillness that denotes stepping aside from nature’s rages and filtering out everything that does not soothe…..


Also on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/2jVNJgXRsf86KoePKtz27T?si=T8GYffA6Q82U14ZHr9hujA

Enjoy!

Five Weather Reports - I

TAK ensemble