"Geyser is a piece in eight movements that, in its 65 minutes, takes us on an elementally exciting journey, with sounds and virtuosities of truly volcanic energy and intensity, but also moments of breathtaking silence and lyricism." With these words, BBC Radio 3 host Tom Service prepared listeners for the broadcast of the premiere of "Geyser," which was broadcast live from the impressively cavernous rooms of the Royal Albert Hall. The BBC Proms, widely known as "the world's greatest classical music festival," had commissioned Marius Neset to compose the piece and premiere it during the 2022 Proms season for his quintet and nineteen players from the London Sinfonietta. Receiving a commission from the Proms is a tremendous honor in itself, and the epic scale of "Geyser" matches the unique size and scope of the famous London venue. The title, Neset says, is "a metaphor for the unbridled rhythmic energy of the music, which at times erupts in ecstatic bursts - like explosions of water and steam from a pressurized geothermal spring" Tensions bubbling beneath the surface are a recurring theme in his work, he says. And that energy is something special. Cellist Zoe Martlew, who was at the premiere, recalls, "The shamelessly raw lyricism and emotion inherent in the big themes are balanced by brain-bending, complex rhythms layered on top of each other, and it takes 100% concentration and energy to keep everyone on board." That tension is exactly what you'll hear on the new album, a live recording of the concert. "Marius is a mild-mannered, incredibly handsome, friendly man who is obviously completely obsessed with music, with a deep seriousness that suddenly lifts with a kind of boyish joy when something sweaty comes together. His own playing is truly inspiring: packed with a fierce intensity and fire that is reflected in the extraordinary group of musicians in his own band. We were all overwhelmed by the driving force of mad genius Anton Eger on drums (who by his own admission has a slightly 'mad brain' when it comes to combining irrational rhythms), the sophistication of Ivo Neame's beautifully modulated piano playing, and Conor Chaplin's rock-solid bass." "Geyser" marks an important step in Neset's development as a composer, a point aptly made by violinist Thomas Gould, leader of the London Sinfonietta at the premiere of "Geyser." He says, "With this piece, Neset cements his reputation as one of the most original and important compositional voices of his time, in any genre. Geyser is devilishly virtuosic for every single player on stage. Yet despite the enormous complexity of the music, Geyser is immediately understandable to the listener, with a familiar sense of architecture and symmetry that comes from classical music and makes both listener and performer feel like they understand the arc of the piece." And Geoffrey Patterson, who conducted the work, notes that Neset's approach to writing for the Sinfonietta has always demonstrated a deep understanding of the orchestra's strengths, which has improved over the course of the collaboration: "I was so pleased that we never felt like an accompanying band, and certainly the fearsome difficulty of Marius's composition justified the inclusion of an ensemble known for its virtuosity." The genesis of the work is a testament to Neset's honesty and authenticity as a person and as a musician. He had begun an optimistic work, but then came the invasion of Ukraine by the Russians: "I had already written a large part of the piece, but could not finish it. When I finally started composing again, it was impossible to continue where I had left off. As someone who writes with a lot of emotion, events like that will always affect the music." Neset says he "dismantled" much of what he had written and brought "darker edges" to the sequence. The final release of the geyser in the last movement, "Outbreak," is ecstatic, but the path to it has changed completely from Neset's first thoughts. While Neset is known primarily as an amazingly gifted saxophonist, his development as a composer over the preceding ten years is truly remarkable. "Geyser" is Neset's third work with the London Sinfonietta, following "Arches of Nature" and "Snowmelt" (2016), described by Downbeat as "majestic," and "Viaduct" (2018), commissioned by the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. But they are just one of the many groups that have commissioned him, and his catalog of works has grown steadily. The first major work was "Lion," which he wrote for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra in 2012, premiered at the Molde Jazz Festival, and released as his ACT debut CD in 2014. Other commissions have come from big bands in Bergen and Copenhagen, from the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, whose artistic director Leif Ove Andsnes, one of the world's leading classical pianists, is a close musical colleague and friend, and from the Bergen Philharmonic: a saxophone concerto, "Manmade" (2020) and "Every Little Step" (2021), a 20-minute piece for full orchestra without saxophone. "Geyser" was described in the concert program as "a story in sounds." The coherence and flow of the narrative in Neset's composition are nothing short of miraculous. The whole endeavor is, as John Fordham of the Guardian has already written of the Neset / London Sinfonietta combination, "rivetingly coherent as well as instrumentally stunning."