- PRESS -
“As one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music, TAK’s command of the performance theatrics necessary in this genre shines even on a recording. Jam-packed with wild instrumental pyrotechnics (Sorey’s Ornations) alongside clever moments of vocal fry imitating bow overpressure (Gee’s Mouthpiece 28), a violin harmonic gliss tailing the accelerated whoosh of a whispered crescendo (Behzadi’s Az Hoosh mi..), and letter names of notes sung on the incorrect pitches (Diels’ The Colors Don’t Match), TAK and their composer collaborators have developed one of the most distinct and eclectic releases of the year.”
— I Care if You Listen / Oor
“sublime art… a masterpiece.”
- An Earful / Star Maker Fragments
“The six have birthed with this project an experimental chamber album unlike any other…engrossing and transporting…a presentation that plays like a live performance.”
— Textura Magazine / Star Maker Fragments
“OK, I have to say, Star Maker Fragments is a big coup de cœur for me at the start of this year. On this album, Taylor Brook‘s composition is masterfully interpreted by her and TAK Ensemble. You start the album a regular human on planet Earth, but you find yourselves among a strange alien species, and end up a conscious, living star before exploding into multiverses. The journey is unique and wonderful; it’s best experienced with your full attention.”
— Can This Even be Called Music / Star Maker Fragments
“The group puts the novel’s text to music with a varied and shimmering set of movements that dovetail seamlessly with Brook’s electronics.”
— Avant Music News / Star Maker Fragments
“a very convincing encapsulation of a striking landmark book…intriguing”
- The Wholenote, Editors Corner / Star Maker Fragments
“TAK ensemble just goes for it. They make their music as free as the subject matter it is based on… It’s about how the music fits with each other to create these lurid soundscapes that seamlessly flow into one another.”
- Vital Weekly / Star Maker Fragments
“A placid jumble of bio- and zoomorphic manifestations worthy of Salvatore Sciarrino, the only mimetic hint before the perspective is drastically subverted with the sudden fall into a Kubrickian tunnel of light and color, a synaesthetic viaticum through which the interstellar journey begins…The first great proof of the maturity achieved by one of the most promising composers of the new generation.”
— Esoteros / Star Maker Fragments
"New York new-music chamber ensemble TAK pins down the musical magical realism of emerging composer Taylor Brook. These young, fearless players navigate Brook’s mechanized instruments and alternate tunings with fluid grace and confidence."
- The Boston Globe / Ecstatic Music
“21st century chamber music that combines crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.” (WIRE Magazine)
"My first encounter with TAK Ensemble quite literally took my breath away. This intrepid quintet...impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity — and, well, just a dash of IDGAF as they slay the thorniest material like it’s nothing.... As titillating and irresistible a band as we have on the new music scene today."
"Mr. Diaz de Leon sells his vision with aplomb on a new album performed by the TAK Ensemble and the composer himself (on synthesizer, naturally). The edgy electronic timbres can serve a range of compositional functions: contrasting dramatically with the purity of a soprano’s sound, in one moment, before finding, in the bass clarinet, a partner in grain."
- The New York Times / Sanctuary
“I found myself having a thought that I would return to many times throughout this program. New music can be strange, intimate, challenging, and moving, and in capable hands, can be all four at once…For the fifth time that night, I found myself almost entirely outside of time, so engrossed in the performance that I honestly could not give an accurate break-down of the roughly 90 minute program.”
- Sequenza 21 / ArchiTAK
"Haunting"
- VICE Creator’s Project / Idolum
“…deeply thought out and replete with paradoxes...bands of magical realism stripe Ecstatic Music as well, and the players perform with the fearlessness that Brook’s music requires...sensual and unsettling"
- Q2 Music, Album of the Week / Ecstatic Music
“New York’s TAK Ensemble show their range and curiosity on this terrific self-released album, alternating between full quintet pieces and bracing duos—all of them bristling with edge.”
— Best of Bandcamp, Contemporary Classical / Oor
“Over the past six years, New York's TAK Ensemble has emerged as a unique ensemble in contemporary music: the quintet has already released two albums, collaborating with composers Taylor Brook and Mario Diaz de Leon, which show the ensemble's dedication to working directly with composers and artists to create new work.”
— PSNY / Oor
“The music of TAK Ensemble is an impressive, exceptional and organic fusion of contemporary academical music…stunning experiments and wild, free, expressive and driving improvisations.”
— AVANT SCENA / Oor
— New Music Listening Club, Episode 2 / Oor, TAK ensemble
— I Care if You Listen, pre-release / Oor, TAK ensemble
— Contemporary ClassiCAST / Oor, TAK ensemble