Ensemble Signal Plays Jonny Greenwood: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

May 20, 2019, Tom Huizenga I ve watched a lot of Tiny Desk concerts over the years. It s good to see musicians in the raw, away from stage lighting and backing tracks as if they ve just stopped by an office to play over a lunch break, with deskbound employees watching on. The performances should expose flaws, but instead they tend to expose musicians being casually brilliant, like the members of Ensemble Signal, who certainly play these pieces beautifully. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near Washington, D. C. for this recording. And I still find it bizarre that you can put a musical idea on paper and have it reproduced at such a distance and with such added life. We re used to sounds and images being shared as exact clones of one another, but the pleasure in using ink and paper is that the music is interpreted rather than just reproduced. All those years of practice, in all those players, distilled into 15 minutes of music. It s a big privilege and a continuing motivation to