The Holy Liftoff, by Claire Chase, JACK Quartet, Terry Riley, Samuel Clay Birmaher

The Holy Liftoff

by Claire Chase, JACK Quartet, Terry Riley, Samuel Clay Birmaher

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Marcelo Brissac This album is really beautiful, the melodies, the sound by the best flutist Claire Chase with JACK Quartet and the music by the great composer Terry Rilley! Just the best album in 2026! Thank U

William Denton Riley's music is great, the flutes are light and gorgeous, everything is grounded in the string quartet, and it all flows together into a wonderful long work.

pjnewman-364 Really anticipating this. Watched her performances at Ojai countless times.

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CD package of Claire Chase & JACK Quartet performing Terry Riley's "The Holy Liftoff", realized by Samuel Clay Birmaher. Packaged in a cardboard wallet with booklet and graphics.

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1.	The Holy Liftoff Chorale 05:02	buy track
2.	Chorale March 01:46	buy track
3.	Hymn 00:57	buy track
4.	Chorale March 2 01:16	buy track
5.	Lift Off Harmony 01:29	buy track
6.	Pastorale 01:53	buy track
7.	Parked Between Two Clouds 01:11	buy track
8.	Chorale 2 (cameo) 01:12	buy track
9.	Pastorale Hymn 00:53	buy track
10.	C Major Ishi 04:01	buy track
11.	Interlude 00:42	buy track
12.	E-flat minor Ishi 04:31	buy track
13.	Ishi Dream 03:27	buy track
14.	Pastorale Hymn (Reprise) 01:03	buy track
15.	Flying Snakes 01:22	buy track
16.	The Realm of the Silver Balloons 03:11	buy track
17.	The Tragedy of What We Lost 07:28	buy track
18.	Angels in the Snooker Parlor 01:59	buy track
19.	Horizon Streakers Rag 02:45	buy track
20.	All Arise 07:24	buy track
21.	Pulsing Liftors 04:16	buy track
22.	Escape 03:57	buy track

about

The Holy Liftoff (2024) is the 11th installation of Claire Chase’s 24-year Density 2036 project, an initiative to create a bold new repertory for the flute by the 100th anniversary of Edgard Varèse’s seminal 1936 flute solo, Density 21.5. Density 2036 has been called “one of the great musical undertakings of our time” by The New York Times, and “a quarter-century journey that has little precedent” by The New Yorker.

Terry Riley began composing The Holy Liftoff in 2022 as an open score sketchbook brimming with colorful drawings that were intended to be played by Chase with any number of collaborating musicians. Over the following two years, the sketches evolved into a multidimensional work that now combines extensive through-composed material as well as graphic notation, evocative artwork, and Riley’s signature open-form scoring that can be freely interpreted by the performers in variable durations and ensemble formations. Samuel Clay Birmaher's 60-minute realization of the work, which he composed in close collaboration with Riley and the performers, is scored for multiple flutes and string quartet.

“When I improvised the first 16 bars of ‘The Holy Liftoff’ the melody and the chords whispered its name while simultaneously urging me to make drawings of the experience. The drawings had angels and flying creatures and all the energies were rising up into a surrealistic skyscape…This piece could only have been written for Claire Chase.” —Terry Riley

credits

released July 17, 2026

Density 2036, part xi (2024)

CLAIRE CHASE, flutes

JACK QUARTET:
Christopher Otto, violin
John Pickford Richards, viola
Austin Wulliman, violin
Jay Campbell, cello

Recorded at Oktaven Audio, September 14, 2025
Ryan Streber, Producer; Recording, Editing Engineer
Charles Mueller, Assistant Recording Engineer
Daniel Shores, Recording, Mixing, Mastering Engineer

The stones in C Major Ishi and E-flat minor Ishi were played by Nathan Davis.

Timothy Teague - Photography, Performance Claire Chase & JACK Quartet at the Ojai Music Festival
Marico Miura - Photography, Performance Claire Chase & Terry Riley in Kamakura, Japan
Sara Miyamoto - Image Stabalization
Original artwork by Terry Riley

The Holy Liftoff was co-commissioned by
Stanford Live, Tippet Rise,
The Kitchen, and Density Arts,
with the support of CAP UCLA.

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about

Claire Chase Brooklyn, New York

www.density2036.org

Claire Chase is a flutist, interdisciplinary artist, educator and advocate for new and experimental music. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012, and in 2017 was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Chase is Professor of the Practice of Music at Harvard University. ... more

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The Holy Liftoff

by Claire Chase, JACK Quartet, Terry Riley, Samuel Clay Birmaher

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$16 USD or more