Listen to an interview about this album on

⬇️ Contemporary Classics with Dave Lake. ⬇️

Matters of Time, Exponential Ensemble’s debut album, features four commissioned works inspired by science. Time and matter are the common elements of all these works, starting with Crown of the Sun (2020) by Amy Brandon. The sun has always been instrumental in keeping our daily sense of time, from sunrise to sunset, while making life on earth possible. Inspired by a NASA recording of the sun’s crown, this piece will take you to a unique sonic world made of woodwind multiphonics.

A Dark Matter (2021) by Gilad Cohen, inspired by the astrophysics concept of dark matter, is a reminder that the universe is mostly made of matter that we can’t even see or define, very much like our own matters (or worries) that we carry around everyday in our minds. A Dark Matter was also inspired by Gilad Cohen’s own experience of the COVID-19 pandemic; matters that all of humanity can relate to forever. 

Climate change is a matter of our time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, travel significantly came to a halt, air pollution decreased and nature slowly took over again; sometimes in the most unusual places. The Bright Exuberant Silence (2023) was inspired by Jared Miller’s experience of standing in the middle of Times Square in the summer of 2020 with just the bright exuberant neons and blooming dandelions as silent companions. 

Finally, time and matter are the foundation of the Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein and also the root of Relative Theory (2019) by Robert Paterson; a whimsical work inspired by four important scientists and mathematicians: Blaise Pascal, Albert Einstein, Emmy Noether and Pythagoras.

Thank you to all our composers for writing these wonderful and meaningful works. It is with great pride that we present to you our debut album: Matters of Time. 

Pascal Archer, Artistic Director

Exponential Ensemble