Horizon is the latest release for Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer John Luther Adams (b. 1953). It was commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and premiered in Newcastle, with performances following across Australia in February 2026.

Adams’ work has always been heavily informed by natural environments and activism – he lived in Alaska for over 25 years and spends significant time in the Sonoran Desert in Mexico. Horizon began life on the way to Australia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and was completed in other Australian locations: tropics, desert, grasslands. It is in two parts of exactly equal length – 20 minutes and 23 seconds – and based on the elegantly simple premise that there are two horizons: the ‘Visible Horizon’, what we can see, between buildings, landscapes, trees, structures; and the ‘True Horizon’, uninterrupted, usually only observable at sea or in a massive desert. However, as Adams notes, “surrounded by ocean and with sprawling open spaces at its heart, Australia is a continent where the visible horizon is often the true horizon.” 

This is reflected in...