New song: Tensor

I've finished recording a new composition! It's a cello trio inspired by minimal music (Philip Glass and such).



Sheet music can be found at music.joostvandongen.com. This contains the version for cello trio and also an arrangement for violin, viola and cello.

This composition started out as something I was improvising while warming up for a Cello Fortress performance in Dublin last year. I had a lot of fun playing repetitive parts with varying rhythms and afterwards I heard from some people who were sitting nearby that it sounded really tense. Good music provokes some kind of emotion so I figured I should turn that little improvisation into a real song.

Recording this one was a challenge since it needs to be so rhythmic and precise to work. It took me a lot of practice and editing but in the end I'm happy with the result. :)

I also had fun making an image for this one: I combined a photo of my own cello with a photo of machinery I found online. Unfortunately I couldn't find the name of the photographer of the machinery, so I'm not able to give credit for that. The picture was creative commons though so using it should be fine.

Now 8 out of 13 tracks for my album are finished. Only 5 more to go and those are all already quite far along. Finishing the album some day, before I'm old and wise, seems doable!