Wild Wood was commissioned in 2013 by Ardingly ArtsFest and Fontanella Recorder Quintet. The unusual, boxy-looking Paetzold instruments for which it is written – fondly known by some as ‘IKEA recorders’ – immediately caused a stir at the premiere. Fontanella has since championed the piece throughout the UK, chalking up an unusually high number of repeat performances for a contemporary work. In 2014 the ensemble filmed a performance at the Lights Theatre, Andover, and this has now been viewed over 4000 times on YouTube. Fontanella's third album, The Nightingale’s Response, featuring a new studio recording of Wild Wood (alongside music by Purcell, Saint-Saëns and others), will be launched at the Royal Greenwich International Festival in November 2017. We hope that the present publication, alongside the forthcoming new recording, will encourage many more ensembles – both nationally and further afield – to perform the work on their own ‘IKEA recorders’. The wind blows fair for Wild Wood!

“Tim Coker’s Wild Wood excitingly extended the pastoral and ornithological associations of the recorder with the percussive possibilities of large Paetzold basses.”

The Recorder Magazine

 Music example (pdf)