A double anniversary in 2026: Michael Gordon’s iconic work Trance premiered thirty years ago, and the composer himself turns seventy. A musical whirlwind of breakneck rhythms, crackling brass and furious electric bass and guitar, Trance hasn’t lost an ounce of its power. Top-tier Dutch ensemble Klang and United Instruments of Lucilin from Luxembourg are more than up to the task. They combine Trance with music by former Composer Laureate of the Netherlands Calliope Tsoupaki and Irish composer David Fennessy.

Trance is a seven-part tour de force of shifting rhythmic layers, equally explosive and hypnotic. Its energy resonates strongly with Calliope Tsoupaki’s Greek Dance, written in 1990 when she was in her twenties and studying composition with Louis Andriessen. Originally conceived for solo piano, the approximately seven-minute work is now given a new life in an arrangement by Pete Harden for the same 23-piece amplified ensemble. Tsoupaki herself recognises something of Andriessen in the piece, particularly the manic energy of works such as Hoketus and De Staat. In its new ensemble version, Greek Dance reveals another dimension of its rhythmic intensity and becomes a natural companion to Gordon’s Trance.

David Fennessy’s Wounds is also written for the ensemble’s distinctive 23-player line-up of keyboards, trumpets, trombones, guitars, pan flutes and saxophones.