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

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