BALTER dark rooms (TCP commission)
FISHER-LOCHHEAD On Tenterhooks (TCP commission, world premiere)
HEARNE Thaw (TCP commission)
SHAW Taxidermy
WOHL Pixelated
WOLFE Dark Full Ride

Third Coast returns to Constellation with "dark rooms," an evening of extreme sensory stimuli, featuring music by America's most innovative and omnivorous young composers. Marcos Balter (who was recently named to a Guggenheim Fellowship) composed dark rooms for Third Coast Percussion in 2007, one of TCP's first commissioned works. It consists of 5 miniatures that each create their own unique sonic spaces, ranging from delicate to brutal, rave-like to mysterious. Chris Fisher-Lochhead's brand new work explores the limits of rhythmic complexity while drawing curious colors from a broad arsenal of wood, metal and glass objects. In Ted Hearne's Thaw, (recently recorded for Parlour Tapes' *AND album) intensifying drums break through a wall of icy glockenspiel, and Caroline Shaw's sparse Taxidermy features a dozen flower pots with meditative marimba and vibraphone accompaniment. Toy piano, metal keyboards and electronic sounds make up Daniel Wohl's funky and ecstatic Pixelated, and the quartet rocks out on 4 drum sets in Julia Wolfe's Dark Full Ride.