The Holy Liftoff (2024) is the 11th installation of Claire Chase’s 24-year Density 2036 project, an initiative to create a bold new repertory for the flute by the 100th anniversary of Edgard Varèse’s seminal 1936 flute solo, Density 21.5. Density 2036 has been called “one of the great musical undertakings of our time” by The New York Times, and “a quarter-century journey that has little precedent” by The New Yorker. 

Terry Riley began composing The Holy Liftoff in 2022 as an open score sketchbook brimming with colorful drawings that were intended to be played by Chase with any number of collaborating musicians. Over the following two years, the sketches evolved into a multidimensional work that now combines extensive through-composed material as well as graphic notation, evocative artwork, and Riley’s signature open-form scoring that can be freely interpreted by the performers in variable durations and ensemble formations. Samuel Clay Birmaher's 60-minute realization of the work, which he composed in close collaboration with Riley and the performers, is scored for multiple flutes and string quartet.

“When I improvised the first 16 bars of ‘The Holy Liftoff’ the melody and the chords whispered its name while simultaneously urging me to make drawings of the experience. The drawings had angels and flying creatures and all the energies were rising up into a surrealistic skyscape…This piece could only have been written for Claire Chase.” —Terry Riley

1. The Holy Liftoff Chorale

2. Chorale March

3. Hymn 

4. Chorale March 2 

5. Lift Off Harmony 

6. Pastorale 

7. Parked Between Two Clouds

8. Chorale (cameo)

9. Pastorale Hymn 

10. C Major Ishi 

11. Interlude

12. E-flat minor Ishi 

13. Ishi Dream 

14. Pastorale Hymn

15. Flying Snakes 

16. The Realm of the Silver Balloons 

17. The Tragedy of What We Lost

18. Angels in the Snooker Parlor

19. Horizon Streakers Rag 

20. All Arise

21. Pulsing Liftors

22. Escape 

Total Time: 61:58

Release date: July 17, 2026
UPC: 053479229007

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Quotes & Reviews

“This is gorgeous stuff, with the combination of beauty, conviction, and personality that is sonically satisfying and emotionally uplifing. In the conceptual sense, we’ve got the band process here, a group put together to play something and work it out in a way that is specific to them alone. Musically, Chase is channeling Riley’s deep humanity and his embrace of open-ended exploration and the sincerity of rising, consonant music. The thing that I find marvelous about Riley is that he shows how the simplest means can have the most complex effects.” - George Grella, Bands Of Our Lives

Featured on WNYC’s “New Sounds” May 29, 2026

“a ceaseless flowing motion like that of a river, moving horizontally and vertically at once. Of all the pieces from Density 2036 that have been recorded and released so far, this sprawling suite is the most immediately appealing.” - Richard Ginell, SF Classical Voice

“The music is fascinating and fun, and beautifully performed.” - Rick Anderson, CD Hotlist

“spontaneous elements can be heard most distinctly in the grinding bows of ‘Ishi Dream’ and the rippling chords pressed between stingers in the closing section ‘Escape’, they are interspersed throughout the work, found in subtle fragments of rubbed stones, birdsong, and effervescent gusts of wind. Elsewhere, during the opening sequences of ‘Chorale March’, ‘Hymn’, and ‘Chorale March 2’, Riley, Birmaher, and Chase lean heavily into the flute’s pastoral qualities, resulting in bright and jubilant music. This seems a deliberate choice: a tracing of the instrument’s history that connects Chase’s project with both the flute’s traditional vernacular and the pioneering extended techniques – key clacks, droning notes, and dynamic shifts – explored by Edgard Varèse’s Density 21.5 (1936).” - Antonio Poscic, TheQuietus

“The Holy Liftoff more than rewards listeners with interesting music played by some of the best musicians working today (Chase and Jack Quartet). Riley is, of course, endlessly fascinating and always adventurous. Birmaher took Riley’s writing and created the 62-minute work recorded here.” - Craig Byrd, Cultural Attache

“The early movements of The Holy Liftoff reflect the childlike wonder, metaphysical unity, and ecstatic bliss shared by many of Riley's works, yet halfway through, The Holy Liftoff turns surprisingly dark. The 21 chordal repetitions in "The Tragedy of What We Lost," the longest of the 22 movements, memorializes the 21 victims of the April 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. To me, the birdsong that follows represents their souls flying free. You may, too, while listening to this marvelous recording.” - Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile

Featured in ICareIfYouListen’s article on Claire Chase’s Density 2036 - Julia Kuhlman

“There is, throughout the work, a clear sense of direction and journeying, even as The Holy Liftoff isn’t goal-oriented in the same ways as much Western music. Riley’s connections to Eastern traditions and mysticism (he currently lives in Japan) are never far off … That dark centerpiece notwithstanding, The Holy Liftoff is (like much of Messiaen’s) essentially music of joy and release. “All Arise,” the score’s answer, after a fashion, to “The Tragedy of What We Lost,” is both purgative and, as it leads into the work’s final sections, ecstatic. Taken together, the performance is, if not definitive (Riley’s open-form scoring and insistence on creative freedom prohibit any such claims), then at least emphatically vivifying. Chase navigates all of the flute parts with her usual aplomb. So does the JACK Quartet, whose contributions are expertly balanced with the wind chorus. Davis handles the stones discreetly. Riley is present, too, and not just in the notes: he announces several of the movement titles as they come up. Funnily enough, the sound of his voice—aged, gentle, welcoming—is anything but disruptive to the proceedings. Rather, like seemingly everything else associated with the backstory of The Holy Liftoff, it fits the music perfectly.” - Jonathan Blumhofer, ArtsFuse

“The recording itself is beautiful. Nice and warm, and spacious enough to hear the different layers. When I say that occasionally it took a second to decide whether I was hearing multi-tracked flutes or the JACK Quartet, that must be understood as a sincere compliment to the players making that stylistic choice. They both interpret the work ideally. The JACK Quartet are so sharp, and Chase’s flute playing is so all-encompassing: equally at home expressing breezy playfulness as devastation and loss. Occasionally you can hear other instruments – rubbed stones, for example – and Riley’s voice introducing some of the movements. These add a quirky touch and help the listener who wants to put down the liner notes (or minimize the screen) and simply focus on the music. 

I struggled to figure out how exactly to pitch this review, because The Holy Liftoff is so clearly a profound artistic statement, but much like the music itself, it is a nuanced, layered expression. I felt listening to it the way I sometimes feel looking at very abstract art: moved, but not entirely sure why. I cannot easily compare it to anything else I’ve heard… In her excellent booklet essay, music and philosophy PhD Jenny Judge draws a distinction between Steve Reich’s urban and “machine-cut” minimalism and Riley’s pastoral and organic minimalism. I think this might be why The Holy Liftoff feels so emotionally vast despite the relatively small number of musical elements. All parties involved have achieved something special here. This album represents a listening experience which I’m quite sure will stay with me for a long time.” - Aidan Gray, MusicWebInternational