Daniel Wohl, ‘Drift’

New Amsterdam YouTube

From the moment of birth, nothing is more precious than our breath. That's the idea behind "Drift," by Daniel Wohl, the Los Angeles-based Parisian composer, who collaborates with the iSing Silicon Valley Choir, a children's chorus and the Icelandic film director Máni Sigfússon. Wohl's signature sleight of hand composing, where thickets of acoustic and electronic sounds meld imperceptibly, takes on a lighter-than-usual texture here. Waves of breathy vocals intone, "Air, ordinary air, to surrender breath away …" while pipe organ-like keys trade off with propulsive strings and a keening saxophone. Given where we are with the pandemic, Wohl thinks of the piece as "some kind of electroacoustic hymn," he said in a statement, adding, "We've been tossed between hope and despair and I wanted the music to reflect that."

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