when the great fires were lit on the other side of the ocean [2022-2024]
composed by Weston Olencki and performed by TAK Ensemble
LP out autumn 2026
Microtonality, Occultism, and Electrical Force in Early Modern America
when the great fires were lit on the other side of the ocean is a performance project engaging with the legacies of early scientific modernity and their relationships to experimental sound practices and archival preservation. Borrowing its title from the psychogeographical excursions of W.G. Sebald, when the great fires… takes its own journey through real and imagined histories of electricity, using myriad perspectives and mythologies around electrical force to re-enchant its ubiquitous presence throughout American industrial, spiritual, and vernacular narratives. The work posits an “almost-could-have-happened” scenario set in North America around the turn of the 20th century: when electricity, the very force that undergirds our current digitized reality, remained mysteriously nascent in a space of imagination and experimentation as a new unwieldy, yet magical phenomenon.
Fantastical philosophies and prophecies around electricity were central to the belief systems of early sound recording luminaries, eschatological prophecies of the Spiritualists, and complex political players crucial to the founding of our current age. This particular era and its manifold perspectives about this new “endless” source of power allowed individuals from a wide array of social strata to explore their visions and fears of the immanent modernity – a time of intense introspection on the precipice of a fundamentally changing world.
__________________________________________
Weston Olencki is a musician from South Carolina, based in Berlin, Germany. Their projects position musical instruments as sites of cultural inscription, working fluidly between experimental sound, traditional musics, and their various space/time(s). Their solo discography includes Verd Mont (SUPERPANG, 2021), Old Time Music (Tripticks Tapes, 2022), pearls ground down to powder (Full Spectrum, 2024), I went to the dance (Longform Editions, 2024) and Broadsides (Outside Time, 2025), with other recording projects released by PAGANS, Dinzu Artefacts, Lobby Art, Out of Your Head, and HatHut. They are an active member of RAGE THORMBONES and APPARAT, and perform in many contexts on low brass instruments, winds, banjo, and electronics.
Since its formation in 2013, TAK Ensemble has established itself as a major force of new and experimental music, gaining recognition as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen). The group has been praised for delivering performances that “combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (The Wire). TAK maintains an active performance schedule in their home of NYC and across the world, with recent engagements at IntAct Festival (Bangkok), NYPhil’s Kravis Nightcap Series, Music Current Festival (Dublin), Corcoran Festival (DC), and SWOONFEST. TAK has released 9 albums to critical acclaim, featuring the fruits of their long-term collaborations with composers such as Tyshawn Sorey, Ashkan Behzadi, Natacha Diels, Eric Wubbels, Erin Gee, Taylor Brook, David Bird, Mario Diaz de Leon, including this very release with Weston Olencki.
(photo by Titilayo Ayangade)
when the great fires…was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation, New Music USA’s Creator Fund, Humanities New York, and funded in part by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. LP reissue sponsored by an Archival Preservation Project Grant from the Sylvia Marie Cahill Memorial Foundation.
composed by Weston Olencki and performed by TAK Ensemble
LP out autumn 2026
Microtonality, Occultism, and Electrical Force in Early Modern America
when the great fires were lit on the other side of the ocean is a performance project engaging with the legacies of early scientific modernity and their relationships to experimental sound practices and archival preservation. Borrowing its title from the psychogeographical excursions of W.G. Sebald, when the great fires… takes its own journey through real and imagined histories of electricity, using myriad perspectives and mythologies around electrical force to re-enchant its ubiquitous presence throughout American industrial, spiritual, and vernacular narratives. The work posits an “almost-could-have-happened” scenario set in North America around the turn of the 20th century: when electricity, the very force that undergirds our current digitized reality, remained mysteriously nascent in a space of imagination and experimentation as a new unwieldy, yet magical phenomenon.
Fantastical philosophies and prophecies around electricity were central to the belief systems of early sound recording luminaries, eschatological prophecies of the Spiritualists, and complex political players crucial to the founding of our current age. This particular era and its manifold perspectives about this new “endless” source of power allowed individuals from a wide array of social strata to explore their visions and fears of the immanent modernity – a time of intense introspection on the precipice of a fundamentally changing world.
__________________________________________
Weston Olencki is a musician from South Carolina, based in Berlin, Germany. Their projects position musical instruments as sites of cultural inscription, working fluidly between experimental sound, traditional musics, and their various space/time(s). Their solo discography includes Verd Mont (SUPERPANG, 2021), Old Time Music (Tripticks Tapes, 2022), pearls ground down to powder (Full Spectrum, 2024), I went to the dance (Longform Editions, 2024) and Broadsides (Outside Time, 2025), with other recording projects released by PAGANS, Dinzu Artefacts, Lobby Art, Out of Your Head, and HatHut. They are an active member of RAGE THORMBONES and APPARAT, and perform in many contexts on low brass instruments, winds, banjo, and electronics.
Since its formation in 2013, TAK Ensemble has established itself as a major force of new and experimental music, gaining recognition as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen). The group has been praised for delivering performances that “combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (The Wire). TAK maintains an active performance schedule in their home of NYC and across the world, with recent engagements at IntAct Festival (Bangkok), NYPhil’s Kravis Nightcap Series, Music Current Festival (Dublin), Corcoran Festival (DC), and SWOONFEST. TAK has released 9 albums to critical acclaim, featuring the fruits of their long-term collaborations with composers such as Tyshawn Sorey, Ashkan Behzadi, Natacha Diels, Eric Wubbels, Erin Gee, Taylor Brook, David Bird, Mario Diaz de Leon, including this very release with Weston Olencki.
(photo by Titilayo Ayangade)
when the great fires…was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation, New Music USA’s Creator Fund, Humanities New York, and funded in part by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. LP reissue sponsored by an Archival Preservation Project Grant from the Sylvia Marie Cahill Memorial Foundation.