European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Red Note Ensemble Premieres Tansy Davies's Lost Science at Sound Scotland

Nov. 24, 2025

On October 30, Red Note Ensemble premiered Tansy Davies's Lost Science at Sound Scotland. The 23-minute work for chamber ensemble and electronics was commissioned by Red Note Ensemble, Sound, Crash Ensemble, and Ensemble Offspring. The latter give the Australian premiere of the work on June 3, as part of the "ACO on the Pier" recital series in Sydney Harbor.

Lost Science figures amongst several exciting appearances of Davies’s music in the 2025/26 season. On March 24, The Passion of Mary Magdalene, a radical reimagining of the Easter story, premieres at the Barbican with Dunedin Consort, John Butt, and soprano Anna Dennis. On March 13, London Sinfonietta perform Soul Canoe, created as part of a residency at the Concertgebouw in 2019, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; on October 11, they gave the Mexican premiere of inside out 2 at the Cervantino Festival. In summer 2026, Colin Currie will premiere Davies’s new percussion concerto.

Following their premiere of Canopies of Liquid Light – a partner work to Steve Reich’s City Life – in 2024, on November 6, Asko|Schönberg gave the Dutch debut of grind show (electric) – a 6-minute work for chamber ensemble and electronics inspired by Goya – at the Muziekgebouw. Additionally, Ensemble 10:10, who have previously performed Davies’ glider and inside out 2, will present Dune of Footprints for string orchestra with Clark Rundell on February 25.

Lost Science is an imaginary journey into the Earth’s interior, dwelling in a space between the Earth’s surface as we know it and older geophysical layers. These interior spaces speak to us in moans, groans, echoes and whispers; the voice of Earth: secrets of her ‘deep time’ structure, and of the pains of the transformation she is undertaking now. Davies calls the electronics “an ancient landscape”, explored by the live instrumentalists. The work proceeds through eleven cycles – visions of the “Divine Feminine” manifested in a host of figures: Joan of Arc, Green Tara, Mary Magdalene, Hathor, Isis, and Quan Yin. They act as guides through this geological interior. Delving into the earth’s interior has been a longstanding source of creative fascination in Davies’s work, providing the framework her 2018 chamber opera created for Mark Padmore, Elaine Mitchener, and the London Sinfonietta. 

Red Note Ensemble gave the UK premiere of Davies’s Soul Canoe – created as part of a residency at the Concertgebouw – in 2019 at the festival, returning to the piece in 2021 at the Lammermuir Festival. The group first performed Davies’s music in 2018, presenting neon at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Listen to Davies's Nature (2012):
Tansy Davies/Nature/ensemble oktopus für musik der moderne/Erika Mikami, piano/Konstantia Gourzi, conductor


To learn more about Tansy Davies, visit fabermusic.com.

Tansy Davies
Lost Science (2024)
for chamber ensemble and electronics
fl(pic).cl(bcl)-perc-vn.va.vc-electronics(requiring MaxMSP)
23'

Canopies of Liquid Light (2023)
for chamber ensemble of 16 players and fixed audio
2(2.pic).2.1.bcl.0-0.0.0.0-3perc-2pno-1.1.1.1.1-fixed audio
24'

News