Prophecies of Fire (2023), scored for a quartet of percussionists (playing bass drums, timpani, tenor drums, tam-tams, and orchestral bells), is a perpetual acceleration canon: unbroken streams of rhythm inexorably rising in pitch and growing brighter, always seeming to get faster while never quite arriving.

“My earliest musical awakening was as a drummer. From rock bands to playing timpani in a symphony orchestra, my deepest physical connections to music have been through percussion…. Now, in my 70s, I’ve returned to the place where I began.

“The musicians should surround the listeners, enveloping them in a maelstrom of tones and timbres, dynamics and velocities—like the wildfires and superstorms, the turbulent seas and waves of heat now rising all around the earth. But beyond any metaphorical associations, Prophecies of Fire is a celebration of the elemental power of sound itself to touch, to move, and perhaps even to transform human consciousness.” (JLA)

Prophecies of Fire is performed by the celebrated Sandbox Percussion ensemble. Described as “exhilarating” (The New York Times) and “virtuosic and utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian), the Grammy-nominated Sandbox Percussion champions living composers through its unwavering dedication to contemporary chamber music. Among the group’s many recent collaborators are Andy Akiho, Michael Torke, Christopher Cerrone, and the Tyshawn Sorey Trio.

“I’ve come to regard these four young men [Sandbox Percussion] as the foremost interpreters of my music for percussion quartet. And I welcomed the invitation to compose Prophecies of Fire—a concert-length work—specifically for them.” —John Luther Adams

 John Luther Adams is a Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning composer whose music is a profound response to the natural world. He lived for many years in Alaska, where his work derived much of its unique character from the landscape and weather of the Great North. Some years ago, he moved from Alaska, living in various desert and mountain areas in South and Central America and in rural New Mexico and, for the past two years, in various parts of Australia—all places that also inspired and found expression in his music. He is a long-time associate of the Cold Blue label; his music has appeared on ten previous Cold Blue CDs, including Waves and Particles (Grammy nominated), Darkness and Scattered Light (Grammy nominated), Houses of the Wind, Arctic Dreams, Everything That Rises, and Lines Made by Walking. (Grammy nominated).

“John Luther Adams . . . one of the most original musical thinkers of the new century.” — Alex Ross, The New Yorker

“His music becomes more than a metaphor for natural forces: it is an elemental experience in its own right.” —Tom Service, The Guardian

“His music perfectly echoes the landscape he loves: impersonal, relentless, larger than human scale, yet gorgeous, a quiet chaos of colors, suffused with light.” —Kyle Gann, Chamber Music Magazine