Place has always been an important, even formative part of John Luther Adams’ music. One of his earliest works, “Night Peace,” uses soft choral singing and gently rustling percussion to evoke a night in Okeefenokee Swamp. Many of his best-known pieces, like “Earth And The Great Weather,” “In The White Silence,” and “Inuksuit,” grow out of his years living in Alaska and are as much about the environment and the landscape of the Arctic as they are about the actual sounds. Even his Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, “Become Ocean,” offers an expansive sense of place – one that encompasses our entire world.

But his new piece, “Soundwalk 9:09,” is much more specific: it was commissioned by MetLiveArts to celebrate the opening of the Metropolitan Museum’s new Met Breuer on 75th St and Madison Avenue this month, and is based on the sounds you might hear while walking the eight blocks between the Met and the Met Breuer. Last summer, Q2 Music (New York Public Radio’s online contemporary music stream) collaborated with the Met by asking listeners to collect sounds for the piece. Adams writes that “Soundwalk 9:09” is "an invitation to listen more deeply to the music of the city," adding that he "sculpted and filtered these street sounds to reveal resonances that lie hidden around us all the time."

Click the player above to hear John Schaefer interview Adams about the piece. You can also read Adams's short introduction to the piece, "To The Listener."

Download the uptown and downtown versions of “Soundwalk 9:09” by John Luther Adams for free via the Metropolitan Museum’s website, q2music.org, and the WQXR app.