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A native Californian based in Australia, composer and pianist Erik Griswold works in contemporary classical, improvised and experimental forms and has become known for his use of prepared piano, percussion, environmental sounds and the music of China’s Sichuan province. Ecstatic Descent for prepared piano melds composed and improvisational elements in an intensely animated, one-of-a-kind textural sound world. Performed by Griswold himself, at times it may call to mind an enormous out-of-control music box or mechanical toy. It also readily lends itself to comparisons to various ever-changing (yet ever the same) natural phenomena, such as the bubbling frequencies of a river. "Ecstatic Descent follows a strict and slowly unfolding structure. I start with the top four pitches of the piano. Each minute I add another four to five pitches, moving to the left, or downwards across the instrument. Each time a new cluster of pitches is added, I have to alter my performance technique to maintain the same intensity in the texture ... finally, five minutes from the end I take up a small mallet (like a chopstick) in my right hand and continue the pointillistic 'cluster' textures with the new colour." - Erik Griswold