Press
San Francisco Classical Voice
“George Hurd compounds electronic and chamber into a web of euphonic melody. [He] collects musical genres — classical, acoustic, electronic, rock, pop, film, world, and more — to weave a tensile web. His compositions, written for [The Hurd Ensemble], form a kind of tribal chamber music library that features at its base the indigenous sounds he collects from his travels and manipulates digitally. Hurd twists the synthetic, electronic material like a bundle of lace and anchors his homemade hammock of sounds with tightly structured percussion. A variety of acoustic instruments — viola, cello, upright bass, flute, piano — add flowing passages that breeze, ruffle, rip holes, or create waves of lyricism in the work.”
Lou Fancher
WNYC New Sounds
“…fascinating and kinetic music by San Francisco-based composer George Hurd, who combines found sound collected over the past 15 years of his travels with string quartet (violin, viola, cello, upright bass), piano and electronics. The electroacoustic compositions, on his record Navigation Without Numbers, resemble the layers of an onion; there’s always another melodic, harmonic, electro-distortion and/or percussive layer to reveal upon repeat listens.”
John Schafer
“Composer George Hurd doesn’t subscribe to any of the monolithic definitions around musical categories. [He] successfully closes any preconceived gaps between electronics and traditionally composed music and what the listener is left with is sometimes warm, sometimes angular but always accessible. A captivating effort, not confined by any of the many micro-genres in play.“
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Karl Ackermann