Leaning far over his double bass, Thomas Morgan fleshes out the lower sonic registers, while vibraphonist Patricia Brennan expands the ensemble’s sonic landscape, and percussionist Dan Weiss continually constructs new rhythmic structures. Amidst this acoustic powerhouse stands a Fazioli grand piano, at whose keyboard Sylvie Courvoisier gestures expressively. Quite often, the Swiss artist reaches deep into the interior of the piano, swiftly preparing the strings and playing them with a veritable assortment of percussive implements. It quickly becomes clear why, in her spoken introductions, Courvoisier cites the music of Sofia Gubaidulina and György Ligeti as influences. For she, too, is concerned with a compositional calculus—one that allows for tension-filled shaping within a varied and dynamic dramaturgy. Yet restricting improvisational freedoms is not her style; all band members find and seize opportunities—amidst these "songs," as the leader calls her compositions—to spontaneously develop a life of their own. The New York State Council on the Arts served as the patron for this ensemble, which went by the name Poppy Seeds as recently as 2024 but is now billed as Amalthea.