This recording contains 4 pieces for Saxophone Octet. The structures were developed during Chisholm's 8 years of teaching a masterclass on the mountain of Pilion in Greece. The ensemble of 8 Alto saxophone delivers an astoundingly homogenous blend. From the liner notes: Since 2006 I have been fortunate to give a master class in the village of Agios Lavretios on Pilion mountain in Greece. This is a beautiful village overlooking the bay of Volos where for a few weeks every summer, music rings out in every stone, tree, and river. Over the years my master class grew in size and it became a testing ground for many of my ideas. As we would often conduct the sessions in the forest or on the mountain, we developed several non-notated structures. This was the birthplaces of my random chord exercises, my multiphonic pieces, the idea of an alto-only ensemble, and the kind of forms and structures that can be heard on this recording. There is an air of myth that gently resides over this place. It was here that the Centaurs were said to originate from. Not far from the village, Jason set out with the Argonauts. In a way, the feelings of antiquity could not be ignored and my course itself began to incorporate the teachings of Pythagoras in which number comes alive. Having once gone deeply into the world of quarter tones it was here that I began to explore overtone–based tunings- tunings that are closer to the simple number truths that form and govern the universe around us. It was here that Love in Numbers was born and my Fibonacci work truly began. Playing over this ancient valley feels like an invocation. All of the pieces on this recording arose out of ideas from the mountain. The first piece, “Monochrome”, lets the players choose any note from a given scale as long as they blend as one voice and attempt to intonate these notes as perfectly as possible. This piece was premiered in the Claustro of Pollensa in Mallorca in it’s full form. This now is the first recording.In most of my ensemble work I ask the players to blend as one- I am interested in an homogenous blend of instruments- something that is rarely if ever found when the saxophone is present due to it’s overtone structure, articulation, and lack of fine dynamic control on the part of the player. In most of these works I ask the players to leave the tongue out of the equation. When classical players ask me why they should not use “tah” to begin a note I tell them that the world did not begin with a “tah”, it began in my books with the open “ahh”. And yes, when we play, we too are creating. Additionally to that, we are often accompanied on the mountain with the wind. The wind’s articulation is also open; the wind has no tongue. “Inside C” takes my low C on the alto as the 8th overtone, providing an imaginary fundamental of 19.445 hertz and builds chords from notes up to the 44th overtone. The difference tones are complex but often hint at the imaginary fundamental. Like many of my works, I allow groups within the group to conduct themselves, meaning the piece is different every time we play it. “Density Movements” contains many of the structures we have played on the mountains: random chords, overtone chords, air sounds, microtonal clusters, monochromes, cluster chorals. The journey is still in progress and each year we continue to refine the work. Most of the players in this Berlin session have also passed through the workshop in Greece and many have them have taken the ideas from our sessions in the village and formed their own ensembles to further the work. Hayden Chisholm, Cologne 2012