Spitfire Audio & Eric Whitacre Unveil Eternity

Spitfire Audio has announced the release of Eternity, its third sample library created in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre. They say that, building on a creative partnership spanning more than a decade, Eternity brings a new dimension to their work together, capturing the ambient electronic sound palette of analogue synthesisers, piano and warped choir behind Whitacre's latest album, Eternity in an Hour, released on Decca Classics on October 16th. 

Here's the details direct from the company...

Eternity marks the first time Spitfire Audio has developed a flagship sample library alongside the recording of a live album as part of one large-scale creative project. Produced by Spitfire's Principal Producer Harry Wilson in the same sessions and with the same machines as he recorded the album, the Eternity library draws directly from Whitacre's creative process, capturing the composer's evolving relationship with synthesisers, his distinctive choral writing and his lifelong relationship with the piano, including the family instrument on which he composed some of his earliest pieces.

Eternity gives composers access to the sounds that shaped the album, from dissolved and transformed choral vocals to organic synth textures and expansive sound design. It includes more than 200 presets and five signal chains built around Whitacre's own rig, opening up new ways to explore the sonic world of Eternity in an Hour. 

The library is available to purchase outright at £239 RRP, with an introductory 20% discount for the first four weeks. Eternity is the first collaborator Spitfire Audio library within Splice Instrument, a unified player with thousands of world-class instruments from Splice and Spitfire Audio.

Eternity in an Hour marks both a personal and musical shift for Whitacre. A deeply meditative hour-long work for choir, cello, piano and live electronics, it is one of his most ambitious projects to date, composed from four lines of Willam Blake poetry, and the first of his compositions to place synthesisers at its centre. 

The sample library captures elements of that palette, including sonic stems and textures from Whitacre's own instruments and effects. Among its collection of many unusual and interesting synthesisers and effect sources is a Soma Lyra-8 synthesiser, which became a central part of Whitacre's creative world during lockdown. 

The library also includes deep samples of his grandmother's piano, an upright Ludwig & Co instrument bought by his great-grandfather in 1903 and kept in the family ever since. The piano, located in Los Angeles, was the first instrument Whitacre played and the one on which he composed some of his earliest pieces, and which shaped the sound of Eternity in an Hour. Its original felt remains in place, preserving the distinctive character of an instrument that has been part of Whitacre's life since childhood.

The library also explores the transformation of the human voice. Drawing on new recordings made at AIR Studios' Lyndhurst Hall, Whitacre and Wilson created choral textures that are granularised, stretched and folded until individual syllables dissolve. These personal and experimental sound sources form the foundation of a collection that opens up new possibilities for blending acoustic instruments, electronic textures and the human voice.

The album's second disc includes remixes from six collaborating artists, and Eternity includes presets from these collaborators.

"This library is for any composer looking to find a sense of stillness in their music. That doesn't mean it's not going anywhere, it's standing still in one place, shimmering and bubbling with attention and intention," said Eric Whitacre. "It gives other composers access to these tools to build their own little snow globes of eternity. I'll be making plenty more projects going forward using just the three libraries I've done with Spitfire."

"Our collaborations with Eric over the last decade have always sought to build a world that matches his deep, thoughtful approach to curation, and portray the colours he writes with," said Harry Wilson, Principal Producer, Spitfire Audio. "Choir gives us organic, lush, and beautifully raw voices. Contrast pushes at the edges of that palette and provides movement, dissonance, and a bridge between the light and the dark. And now, with Eternity, the organic is crushed, granulated, and morphed alongside electronics into a new world - one that feels at the same time human and delicate, yet brutal and otherworldly."

"To be truly authentic in capturing that we built the record and the library in tandem: same gear, same rooms, same chains.  And it now lives on, opening up an ever expanding world from that grain of sand."

INSIDE ETERNITY

    _    Whitacre's synthesizers: The Soma Lyra-8 at its heart, alongside Ciat-Lonbarde Sidrax Organ, Minimoog Model D, Oberheim OB-X8, ASM Hydrasynth, Eurorack, and Norns/Grid/Just Friends
    _    Samples from Whitacre's Ludwig & Co piano: Presented as close and mid mixes, plus five signal chains through Whitacre's rig
    _    Warped choir voices: Granularised, stretched and folded until the words dissolve
    _    Five effects built from Whitacre's rig:

•     Adorn (filterable octave stereo delay) 
•     Weave (cinematic shimmer with grit) 
•     Dwell (warm tape delay) 
•     Dance (long ghosted echoes blooming an octave up) 
•     Ruin (broken, tape-based degradation)

 

    _    Dual-layer presets and XY pad: two sounds from Whitacre's world in one patch, morphed with a single gesture.
    _    Six artist presets from the album's rework artists: BlankFor.ms (Tyler Gilmore), Lesjamusic (Nick Lisher), IDRA, Luca Longobardi, Matt Lowery and Elin Piel
    _    Eternity is hosted within Splice Instrument, a unified player with thousands of world-class instruments from Splice and Spitfire Audio. Downloading and playing is managed in one place. With focus on continually expanding and enhancing Instrument, composers can spend less time managing libraries and more time creating

Pricing and Availability:

Eternity is available now to purchase outright at £239 RRP from Spitfire Audio. A 20% discount introductory price is available for the first 4 weeks.

Eternity is also available as part of the Splice Instrument subscription at $12.99/month

More information:

• Spitfire Audio

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