Songs
New Global Ensemble
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- artist:New Global Ensemble
- featured artist:Benjamin Boone and Stefan Poetzsch
- release year:2025
- style(s):Ethno, Contemporary
- country:Ghana
- formats:Audio File / Digital, CD (Compact Disc)
- record posted by:One World
- label:One World
- publisher:One World
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NEW GLOBAL ENSEMBLE: DREAM WALKING
New album from critically acclaimed saxophonist Benjamin Boone and violinist Stefan Poetzsch, with
their New Global Ensemble, which combines musicians from the United States, Germany, Ghana, Mexico,
and Ireland. Dream Walking is a combination of composition and improvisation with strong rhythms
throughout. Both a meditation and a celebration, the intuitively conceptual work of the German and
American soul-brothers and their international guests is an important record for fans of global
experiments and love for Steve Reich, Jan Garbarek, John Cage, or even Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Dream Walking combines the talents of six musicians from the United States, Germany, Ghana,
Mexico, and Ireland into a cohesive whole. In fact, leaders Boone and Poetzsch surrender any need for
primacy to the overall goal: creating fascinating and uplifting soundscapes using a surprising collection of
instruments that includes violin, saxophone, live electronics, gyil (marimba), mbira (thumb piano),
asalato (two shakers connected by a string), and electric guitar. The mélange of electronic, electric,
and acoustic has the effect of both grounding the album here on earth and sending it soaring into the
stars, or even into dreams.
Dream Walking was conceived during saxophonist Benjamin Boone’s Fullbright fellowships in
Ghana and Ireland. Commenting on the result, Boone said, “We see this album as a sonic journey through
whatever our existence is, so our hope is that listeners will be transported to a plain of awareness that
engenders reflection, possibility, connection, peace, and a sense of the infinite. We asked ourselves: Why
are we here? What is our purpose? The band is called the New Global Ensemble for a reason: We are
‘New’ in that our music is imaginative and original; ‘global’ in that we explore the intersections between
the traditional and art music of Africa, Europe, and the United States; and ‘ensemble’ because we do this
though dialogue, equal partnership, sonic experimentation, and co-composition.”
If as a listener you allow yourself to be immersed in it, the music and the emotional depth of its
performers will transport you through layers of memory and subconsciousness. As is true throughout,
Dream Walking is the ultimate expression of listening, of musicians so tied together as an ensemble that
musical ideas pass from one to another effortlessly, creating music that transcends.
TITLES 01. Invocation 2:48; 02. Splashes And Waves 3:49; 03. Irish Incantation 3:43; 04. Global Interlude
2:54; 05. Variation On A Ghanaian Theme 4:08; 06. The Parting Glass 3:43; 07. Convergence 3:32; 08.
Friday Afternoon In Accra 7:37; 09. Exultation 3:44; 10. Dream Walking 3:42; 11. Exploration 1:37; 12.
Realization 5:42. Composed by New Global Ensemble, except: (5) and (6), Traditional, arr. by Boone/
Poetzsch; and (2) by Poetzsch, (11) by Poetzsch/Boone. All tracks recorded live without overdubs, except:
(5) background vocals, (2) fragment montage, and (11) gyil. LINE UP BENJAMIN BOONE (US) soprano
and alto saxophones (2-12); STEFAN POETZSCH (DE) violin, viola, live electronics; AARON BEBE SUKURA
(GH) gyil, mbira (2,4,8,10,11); BAFFOUR AWUAH KYEREMATENG (GH) voice, asalato, prempensua (2,5,10); ÓSCAR MASCAREÑAS (MX/IE) voice artist, live electronics (1,3,12); ANTHONY MONAHAN (IE)
electric guitar, live electronics (1,6,7,9,12). Produced by STEFAN POETZSCH & BENJAMIN BOONE.
Recorded by KRZYSTZOF BURDA, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland, April 11, 2023; BEN
WANDERS, Wanderland Studio, Limerick, Ireland, May 29-30, 2023; and PENNY SAMUEL ADU GYAMFI,
Vivivi Studio, Accra, Ghana, February 24, 2018. Mixed and Mastered by PETER HEIDER,
Gartenhausstudios, Erlangen, Germany. Additional Mastering by MIKE MARCIANO, Systems Two, Long
Island, NY, USA ©℗One World Records 2025
Gratitude to the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program, the U.S. Embassy Ghana, the Fulbright Commission in
Ireland, The University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, the University of Ghana, and
California State University, Fresno. Funded in part through grants from Kulturförderung Stadt
Erlangen, Kulturstiftung Erlangen, & California State University, Fresno.