En Masse is a composition for choir and drums which navigates the threads of interconnection among individuals, communities and ecosystems and promotes a culture of care amidst the climate crisis. Framed by the carbon cycle, the work is the product of a yearlong collaboration with forest ecologist Dr. Chris Gough, Professor of Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University, whose research is based on carbon flux–the “inhalation” and “exhalation” of carbon dioxide in an ecosystem. Inspired by the teachings of the more-than-human world, En Masse bridges scientific concepts with themes of ritual and imagination and incorporates field recordings, crowd-sourced text and scientific data into the score.

Beginning and ending with the eddies and swirls of the wind, which provide the foundation for carbon flux measurements, En Masse’s five movements follow the carbon cycle through the elements of air, wood, soil, fire and breath. The piece depicts in turn the voices of migratory songbirds (Air), carbon-absorbing trees (Wood), symbiotic underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi (Soil) and, finally, humans (Fire and Breath).

Fire amplifies the real-life anxieties of individuals* imagining the future of our planet, while a wavering, siren-like melody represents the increase of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, encoded in 16 years of data. Breath pushes beyond fear to focus on self-care and meditation practices and suggest a path forward: “Let’s be a forest.” Can we imagine our care systems as complex networks of exchange which shift and pulse in space and time? Can we hold faith that simple, individual interactions can ripple across a community and, en masse, bloom into meaningful change?

*Text contributors to Fire include:

LNZ Arturo, Laura C., Taylor Colimore, Ankur Desai, Caleb Flood, sarah frances fridrich, Lisa Haber, Tracy Haines, M. L. Liu, EDM, Ana Navarro, Leila Hernandez Rodriguez, Lily White, Marcel Zaes and other anonymous individuals.