A large-scale Masada project built around 92 compositions and eleven ensembles. This listening guide brings the project’s architecture, musicians and sequence into one clear view.
11The Book Beriah presents the final group of compositions in the Masada legacy through distinct ensemble voices. Its scale is part of the experience: different instrumentation, arranging choices and performance personalities illuminate the same broad compositional world.
The sequence moves from voice, guitars and small groups to larger horn-led formations, percussion-heavy ensembles and intimate piano settings. Rather than flattening those contrasts, the project makes them its central listening path.
Ten principal discs map the collection through named sections, followed by a bonus recording featuring Craig Taborn and Vadim Neselovskyi.
Choose a compact duo, a vocal-led setting or a larger group first. The instrumentation offers an accessible way into the project’s changing textures.
The extensive performer list shows how the compositions travel across jazz, chamber-like detail, rhythmic density and experimental practice.
Use the sequence below as a guided route through the project. Each chapter is identified by its title, featured ensemble and the character it brings to the wider collection.
Sofia Rei
Voice and bass saz shape a vocal-led opening chapter.
Cleric
Guitars, oud, keyboards, vocals, bass and percussion.
Spike Orchestra
A large British ensemble of winds, brass, strings, rhythm and keyboards.
Julian Lage and Gyan Riley
A focused meeting of two guitar voices.
Abraxas
Guitars, saz, gimbri, bass and percussion create a dense electric core.
Klezmerson
A broad Mexican ensemble with strings, winds, keyboards and percussion.
Gnostic Trio
Guitar, vibraphone and harp in a spacious trio setting.
Zion80
Horn lines, guitars, keyboards, bass and percussion bring rhythmic scale.
Banquet of the Spirits
Piano, vibraphone, acoustic bass and an expansive percussion setup.
Secret Chiefs 3
A guitar-led ensemble with violin, keyboards, bass and drums.
Craig Taborn and Vadim Neselovskyi
The bonus chapter closes the route with two piano voices.
There is no required order. These four approaches make the scale of the collection easier to enter without reducing its differences.
Try the guitar duo or the trio to hear the compositional shapes without a large ensemble around them.
Move between voice, winds, strings, keyboards and percussion to notice how the same world changes colour.
Pair two sections with different instrumentation and listen for recurring gestures, pacing and contrast.
Finish with one of the larger groups, where the project’s breadth becomes especially apparent.
A concise orientation to the collection and its place in the Plunge Music archive.
Open helpIt is a large project centred on 92 compositions associated with the final chapter of the Masada legacy, recorded by multiple ensembles.
The project is organised as ten principal sections plus a bonus chapter, presented here as an eleven-part listening route.
The archive classification includes avant-garde, experimental music and avant-garde jazz. The recordings also move through chamber-like, rhythmic and world-influenced textures.
Listeners interested in composition, improvisation, unusual ensemble writing and the meeting point between jazz and experimental music will find several entry points.
Use the artist profile link above for the dedicated John Zorn project page within the Plunge Music archive.