For Your GRAMMY® Consideration
Nominee: Best Classical Compendium
Nominee: Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Nominee: Best Engineered Album, Classical
Reviews
Cerrone is a composer with poetry and wit to spare, and both are put to use in “Don’t Look Down,” one of his most adventurous and inviting pieces to date.
Michael Andor Broduer, The Washington Post
The percussion playing is subtle and virtuosic by turns... This vision is well worth our full immersion.
Anne Templer, BBC Music Magazine
Like so much of Cerrone's work, it's imaginative, original, and addictively effective.
— Clive Padget, Musical America
One of his music's undoubted strengths lies in its ability to place commonplace elements in unexpected and unfamiliar settings... The most recent work on the album, Ode to Joy, synthesizes both rhythmic and ambient aspects to powerful effect.
—Pwyll ap Siôn, Gramophone
'A Natural History of Vacant Lots' explores space and sound, positioning ambient and beautiful colors against a haunting electronic backdrop."
— New Sounds
About Don't Look Down
Multi-GRAMMY® nominee-Christopher Cerrone’s new album is a decade-long journey through sound, collaboration, and innovation. From the first sketches of Goldbeater's Skin in 2015 to the final touches on Ode To Joy in 2023, these works reflect his deep connection and friendship with Sandbox Percussion.
Opening with Don't Look Down (2020), a work born during the pandemic, the album blends traditional percussion with found objects and prepared piano and, when premiered by Sandbox Percussion and pianist Conor Hanick, was described as 'exhilarating' by The New York Times. A Natural History of Vacant Lots (2017) explores space and sound, positioning ambient and beautiful colors against a haunting electronic backdrop. The centerpiece, Goldbeater's Skin (2016), pairs percussion with the human voice in a stunning setting of GC Waldrep's poetry.
The album closes with Ode to Joy (2023), a bittersweet celebration of New York City, filled with whistles, harmonicas, and stomping rhythms. Every unique sound on this album was meticulously crafted, shaped by Cerrone’s longtime collaborator and producer Mike Tierney.
Don't Look Down is a bold exploration of the endless possibilities of percussion and a testament to the evolving power of music and collaboration.
Credits
TRACKLIST:
Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984)
Don’t Look Down Don't Look Down
1 I – Hammerspace (4. 46)
2 II - The Great Empty (5. 26)
3 III - Caton Flats (6. 14)
4 A Natural History of Vacant Lots (9. 01)
Goldbeater's Skin
5 I - Apocatastasis (2. 46)
6 II - Interlude 1 – Wood (2. 12)
7 III - In My Dream (1. 51)
8 IV - Interlude 2 - Metal (1. 48)
9 V - My Companion and I (4. 07)
10 VI - Interlude III - Skin - Fatal Exception (1. 58)
11 VII - Against the Madness of Crowds (4. 12)
12 Ode to Joy (9. 42)
Sandbox Percussion
Conor Hanick, piano
Elspeth Davis, mezzo-soprano
Produced by Mike Tierney, Christopher Cerrone, and Sandbox Percussion
Recorded, mixed, and edited by Mike Tierney
Mastered by Alan Silverman