Christina Vantzou, John Also Bennett, Oliver Coates
Death, Reverb and Decay
Out December 19th, 2025 on Editions Basilic
Bandcamp (Private until December 19th)
Smart URL: https://song.link/deathreverbdecay
Death, Reverb and Decay is a new collaboration between composers Christina Vantzou, John Also Bennett, and Oliver Coates. The piece unfolds as a layered procession of blanketing sound, with bass flute, cello, and drone intertwining into a thick, immersive haze. Vantzou’s phosphorus bed of strings is wreathed in Bennett’s shadowy flute tones, rising incrementally from their lowest possible ebb. At the height of the winds’ ascent, Coates’ cello enters into a lamenting call and response. Vivid contrast between the yearning plea of the strings against the burnished breath of the flute carries the piece over its meditative and solemn ground, like an ancient voyage across mournful waters.
Presented as a two-track EP, the titular piece is paired with “Death, Reverb and Decay (Dreaming)”, an even deeper dive embracing the echoing depths of the year’s darkest days and the optimism of approaching light. “Death, Reverb and Decay (Dreaming)” finds Bennett’s billowing bass flute in beautiful consort with Coates’ spectral shimmers, ultimately melting into a hallowed space of replenishment and regeneration. After first emerging as a piece for live performances that occurred across 2025 in various configurations, Death, Reverb and Decay is out Friday, December 19th in digital formats from Editions Basilic.
