A living ecosystem of sound
close-up is a major electroacoustic work by British composer–performer Richard Barrett, realised in close collaboration with Ensemble Studio 6. Conceived between 2013 and 2016, close-up unfolds as a vast, living sound organism: a six-part cycle for electroacoustic sextet where composition and improvisation interweave, and electronics emerge as an instrument among instruments.
Rooted in Barrett’s fascination with the natural world, close-up evokes the experience of moving through a forest — from microscopic to monumental perspectives — where every sonic gesture seems to breathe, evolve, and transform. The work’s title reflects both the immediacy of its sound world and its exploration of proximity: listening as a form of deep observation.Across its 71-minute span, close-up embraces precisely notated passages, open-form improvisations, and free exchanges between acoustic and electronic forces. The ensemble becomes a dynamic ecosystem whose sounds proliferate and coalesce in a perpetual process of renewal. Barrett’s electronics merge with the performers’ extended techniques to create textures that blur the boundaries between the human, the instrumental, and the digital. close-up also continues the composer’s series of ‘nature studies’, alongside works such as vale and life-form, which probe musical structures through processes akin to biological growth and mutation. Its six movements — tendril, codex Ia, pauk, codex XIIa, nachtfalter, and šuma — can each be performed independently, yet together form an unbroken continuum, a single evolving landscape of sound.
Barrett writes:‘It’s a musical ecosystem whose sonic inhabitants are intricately interacting, coevolving, flourishing, going extinct — not a depiction of nature, but an attempt to embody it poetically.’ Performed by the extraordinary musicians of Ensemble Studio 6, close-up captures the ensemble’s unique synthesis of improvisation and contemporary performance practice. Each recording documents a live event, preserving the spontaneity and discovery that define this music’s essence.
TRACK LIST:
1. tendril – harp and electronics [12:07]
2. codex Ia – ensemble [10:02]
3. pauk – trumpet and accordion [9:14]
4. codex XIIa – ensemble [14:03]
5. nachtfalter – recorder, cello, harp and electronics [6:17]
6. šuma – ensemble [19:24]
CREDITS:
Karolina Bäter – recorders
Nenad Marković – trumpet, slide trumpet
Vladimir Blagojević – accordion
Milana Zarić – harp
Ivana Grahovac – cello
Richard Barrett – electronics