The story
The drama gathers around a single winter fire, so the score gathers around a single choir. We recorded the ensemble in small circles — sopranos one night, basses the next — and stacked them until twenty-four voices sounded like one warm room.
Strings enter only when the fire does: low swells under the night scenes, a single violin line at dawn. Nothing in the score is rushed; like embers, it only glows.