by George!

1: an exclamation of wonder, awe, or surprise!
2: An old English battle cry, originating in the 16th century
3. The clamour of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady

By George! She's got it! Combining the brutalist humor of György Ligeti's Musica Ricercata with the tiny majesties of Georg Philipp Telemann's Fantasias for flute without bass. But this time, with extra bass. Yes that's right! By George! is the long-awaited follow-up album to Emi Ferguson and continuo band Ruckus' 2019 Fly the Coop! Bach Sonatas & Preludes. Join us as we break down the walls of reimagining “early music” even more, creating bass lines from nothing, and rethinking the idea of what baroque instruments are capable of.

By George! features György Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata, a 25-minute journey through one fantastic world to the next as the listener takes inching steps towards from a single "A" to all 12 notes of the chromatic scale as if it were a game of twister. Ligeti creates worlds of wonder which are by turns brutalist, tender, playful, and mysterious - made even more vivid here with arrangements for flute, bassoon, cello, bass, guitar, theorbo, and keyboards.

Georg Philipp Telemann’s Fantasias for Flute without Bass are a Baroque landmark, well, for flute players - an encyclopedia of tonalities and characters that challenges the performer to take on all roles at once. Crafted with a crystalline precision of form that parallels the Ligeti, they overflow with the sensual harmonic language of the Baroque. Though originally restrained to just a solo flute, here they are presented in Emi and Ruckus’ original arrangement for flute with newly composed bass lines for big-band continuo.