CD design: Michael Gordon, ‘8’

Artists: Michael gordon, composer; cello octet amsterdam

Released on Cantaloupe Records, 2021

“Eight cellos in a circle. The audience can sit around the octet, or even inside the circle. The cellists start to play, and the resulting music spirals around like a moving object.”
– Michael Gordon

8 explores the dimensional quality of sound. Eight cellists are positioned in a circle, and the passages they play travel around the circle in both directions, call-and-response style. If you're in the middle of the circle, you can hear the dimensionality and perspective of the sound clearly. When listening closely to the recording, you can hear the bass notes traveling in space independently of the melody line. Each cellist plays both the melody and the bass, switching back and forth in a choreography of musical roles.

The artwork for ‘8’ was created by layering images of cellos onto a shape called a “birectified 4-orthoplex”. The lines connect the instruments and create an 8-sided figure in the center.