George Hurd: Navigation Without Numbers Hurd Ensemble & George Hurd

• 1 Four Went Down 06:03
• 2 Pauca 04:06
• 3 The Great Magnet 00:32
• 4 Navigation Without Numbers 04:53
• 5 Fulcrum 03:08
• 6 Flux 03:10
• 7 Locked In Place 04:22
• 8 Tethering Blind 04:04
• 9 Tower of Babel 01:04
• 10 Hummingbird 05:27
• 11 All Falling Apart 02:12
• Total Runtime 39:01

Info for George Hurd: Navigation Without Numbers

George Hurd is a San Francisco-based composer whose work has focused on chamber music, electronic music, and the fascinating world where they intersect. Upon moving to the Bay Area in 2007, he formed The Hurd Ensemble, an electro-acoustic chamber group made up of some of the Bay Area’s best musicians, dedicated to performing his compositions for small-to-medium chamber ensemble and electronics. His work often fixates on the role of memory in music, using electronic sounds that are made entirely by him, recorded on his travels from the past 15 years, each encapsulating a memory from the place and time they were recorded. His first album, Navigation Without Numbers, features a recent composition of the same name for acclaimed violinist Carla Kihlstedt.

Focused on unifying the worlds of electronic and classical music, all Hurd Ensemble compositions are written for string quartet (violin, viola, cello, upright bass), piano and electronics (as well as frequent use of vibraphone, bass clarinets, harp and steel pans), and is meticulously bound together with digitally-arranged sounds collected from Hurd’s travels. The electronics are layered so as to create textures that complement the acoustic instruments, giving rise to a sound that is extremely organic despite its partially digital origins. Accessible and daring, its percussive yet lyrical qualities make it at home in both concert halls and nightclubs.

„The Hurd Ensemble is the perfect blend of electronic and classical. Sometimes crunchy, sometimes haunting, always surprising, The Hurd Ensemble will please anyone who is a fan of music and appreciates different genres.“ (Tony DuShane, SF Gate)

“George and I share a passion for electro-acoustic classical music, and I have very much enjoyed the powerful and unique works he has created with his own ensemble. These pieces integrate electronic sounds and classical instruments in creative and visceral ways. The fact that George has created such interesting music while also finding creative outlets and performance spaces for his ensemble speaks volumes about his impact on San Francisco’s “post-classical” scene.” (Mason Bates, Kennedy Center Artist-in-Residence; former Chicago Symphony Orchestra Mead Composer-in-Residence)

“Hurd’s music organically blends classical-style composition with the timbres and grooves of rock, jazz, and world music. It’s a natural, clearly articulated sound that encapsulates the “in-between genres” zone that Switchboard [Music Festival] seeks to explore.” (Matthew Cmiel, San Francisco Classical Voice)

Hurd Ensemble:
Solenn Seguillon, violin
Jacob Hansen-Joseph, viola
Anton Estaniel, cello
Ari Gorman, cello, bass
Elyse Weakley, piano
George Hurd, electronics, cues

Hurd Ensemble & George Hurd
Performing original music by San Francisco-based composer George Hurd, The Hurd Ensemble, in a broader sense, unifies the worlds of electronic and classical music, but leaves the door wide open for numerous other styles. Rarely making one genre more dominant than the next, the sound world they create exists because almost everything is equal, nothing being so sacred it has to kneel before the rest. By reaching this balance, a new synthesis is born where originality flourishes and gives rise to music that stands apart, welcoming whatever ideas it needs in order to realize itself.

Wrought from elements of classical, electronic, jazz, rock, ambient, experimental and more, each piece is meticulously bound together by digitally-arranged found sounds collected from Hurd's travels, placed shoulder to shoulder to form a greater whole. His sounds are layered and manipulated to weave textures that perfectly complement the acoustic instruments, giving rise to a sound that is extremely organic despite its digital origins.

Employing classical instrumentation of violin, viola, cello, bass, vibraphone and piano with an array of electronics, Hurd's music is both wildly, intricately rhythmic and aglow with shimmering harmonies and melodies. Accessible and daring, its percussive yet lyrical qualities make it at home in both concert halls and nightclubs.

Booklet for George Hurd: Navigation Without Numbers