As its name suggests, Line Drive pushes forward with an aggressive directness. Built largely on a single line that is spun out, doubled, hocketed, passed around, delayed, and ornamented in various ways, the driving character of the piece belies the more usual types of heterophonic textures in which these instruments would traditionally find themselves. Instead they adopt an edgy energy more typical of rock music, as they drive the line through the piece.

“Womack’s Line Drive, for shakuhachi, Chinese pipa, and 21-string koto was an original, creative, and ingenious work.”

Akahata Shimbun in its review of Asia Ensemble’s Tokyo premiere of the work.