The Octandre Ensemble was formed in 2011 by composer Christian Mason and conductor Jonathan Hargreaves. With a repertoire rooted in timbre and ritual, it is one of the most distinctive contemporary music ensembles in the UK. Activity has focused on collaboration with living composers, and on performances of neglected works for unusual instrumentations.

The present recording marks a culmination point in an ongoing partnership; Octandre has championed Sinan Savaşkan as a Composer-in-Association since the inception of the ensemble, commissioning and/or premiering works including his Anthedonia, endlessly … (1981/2011), Septet (2012), and Unique Strands, Circular Functions and Portofino (2000/2014). The Octandre commission Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink – Module 30 (2014) won the BASCA British Composer Award for Large Chamber Composition in 2015.

In July 2023, Octandre recorded Time – Space – Sound – Light, an album of spatial chamber music by Christian Mason, released on Winter & Winter in spring 2024. Another recent collaboration, with Jack Sheen, resulted in his debut album, Sub, being recorded for the label SN Variations in 2021, and the premiere performance of Each One Cancels the Last (Hector) in January 2022 at Blackheath Halls. The group’s ongoing relationship with Frank Denyer has led to world premiere performances of Five Views of the Path, commissioned by the ensemble (London Contemporary Music Festival, 2022), and of his epic work The Fish That Became the Sun (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, 2019; winner of the RPS Award for Large Ensemble Composition, 2020), as well as a composer portrait concert at The Coronet, Notting Hill in 2018. The ensemble’s 2017/18 season also featured portrait concerts of the composers Nicola LeFanu and Rolf Hind.

Octandre gave the UK premiere of Claude Vivier’s Samarkand at the Principal Sound festival in 2016, and participated in an Anglo-French Composers’ Forum at LSO St Luke’s, London, in association with LSO Soundhub in 2012. Festival appearances have included London Contemporary Music Festival (2022 & 2024), York New Music Weekend (2021), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2019), Principal Sound (2016), Little Missenden (2014, 2016 & 2024) and York Spring Festival (2012).