Album Notes

In 1988, Composer/Director Roland Tec gathered a group of singers together to create an ensemble that would develop new music theatre to bring live music and theatre into unconventional spaces. From the beginning NOTE (New Opera Theatre Ensemble) pursued a groundbreaking use of improvisation as a means of generating and performing dynamic music for uninhibited audiences.

In rehearsing and developing these works, we did a tremendous amount of choral work to hone our cohesion as a singing unit and our skills as improvisers. This eventually inspired the first performance of NOTE No Bounds, concerts of entirely improvised vocal music with electronic enhancement. From 1995 to 1999, NOTE toured the U.S. with NOTE No Bounds, wowing audiences at festivals such as SXSW in Austin, Texas and at First Night Boston, among others.

The inspiration for the pieces on this CD come from all corners of the globe, some of which were developed on the spot in live performance. In 1997, Music Producer and Composer Jeanine Cowen brought the NOTE No Bounds team into her studio in Newton, MA for a series of recording sessions and thus was born the one and only CD of this exciting choral work: Horizon Arriving.