Taylor Brook’s Star Maker Fragments is a 45-minute acoustmatic work that sets excerpts of Olaf Stapledon’s groundbreaking 1937 novel “Star Maker.” Most notable for the invention of the many-worlds model of the universe, the novel focuses on a human narrator that is transported out of their body to become a disembodied viewpoint that travels through space and time. Brook evocatively renders Stapledon’s descriptions of imaginary societies with his sweeping and transcendentally detailed microtonal lines. Implicitly critiquing the rise of global authoritarianism in both music and text, Brook relishes in Stapledon’s empathetic and thoughtfully pacifistic lens. 

This piece can be performed with or without the 10-minute electronic "postlude," featured on the album linked above. In the past, we have performed the piece with a lighting designer, which we found complimented the performance beautifully.

1. Star Maker Fragments

2. Star Maker Postlude

Artist: TAK ensemble • Album: Star Maker Fragments • Format: CD | Digital • Release: 3/3/21 Label: TAK editions • Cat. No. TAKe003 • Label Code: M9-518 • UPC/EAN: 08521800909

• Label + Promotion: Laura@TAKensemble.com •

Recorded by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio - October, 2020 | Produced by Taylor Brook

Mastered by Chris Botta | Artwork by Lara Lewison | Album Design by Laura Cocks

Ⓟ & © all rights reserved TAK ensemble / TAK editions 2021

“Star Maker Fragments'' is a new album from TAK ensemble and Taylor Brook setting portions of Olaf Stapledon’s 1937 novel “Star Maker.” The music intertwines virtuosic instrumental performances seamlessly with layers of natural and synthetic electronic sound. 

Conceptualized as a hybrid recording and “impossible performance,” the work plays with the illusion of instrumental performance, expanding the sound of the quintet of flute, clarinet, voice, percussion and violin with multitrack recordings, nature soundscapes, and sound synthesis.

Taylor Brook writes music for the concert stage, electronic music, music for robotic instruments, as well as music for video, theatre, and dance. His music is often concerned with finely tuned microtonal sonorities.

In 2018 Brook completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition at Columbia University with Fred Lerdahl and holds a master’s degree in music composition from McGill University. Currently Brook is a Core Lecturer at Columbia University. He is a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and the technical director of TAK Ensemble.

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. 

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