The writing of On Lotusland began in 2014 after a moonlit walk to the top of Wassan Peak, the tallest mountain in the Saguaro National Park in Arizona. I had been living in Tucson for a little over a year at the time but, having been raised in upstate New York, the city felt entirely enigmatic to me. I wasn’t sure exactly why until I made it to the top of the mountain that night. There I could see all of Tucson as a small mass of city lights surrounded completely by a disquieting, if not terrifying, infinite blankness: the black of the vast desert at night. In that moment, Tucson was, and perhaps like any city, shown to me as a human construction uncomfortably trying to structure itself against its environment. That feeling compelled the creation of On Lotusland.

The work can be described as following a traditional musical motif that repeatedly tries to realize itself, or provide itself context, against a sonic environment of varying extended techniques, textures, and timbres. Transitions throughout the piece are sometimes more jarring than fluid and the formal sections contain some palpable sense of alienation from one another. The result being a piece that bluntly portrays the struggle of two coinciding worlds. The name is multilayered in its meaning:  taken partially from eccentric opera singer Gonna Walska whose garden “Lotusland” in California serves as a loose analogy of form, much like Tucson;  and taken partially from Greek mythology where “lotus land” is described as a place inhabited by “lotus eaters” who live in an aura of dreamy or intoxicated forgetfulness.

— Derick Evans

...his suspenseful, episodic contribution is conversant with contemporary performance techniques— aggressive percussive effects, harmonic glissandi, microtones and more—as it moves through shifting time signatures and in and out of brief forays into lyricism.

— Daniel Barbiero, Avant Music News

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Derick Evans‘ surreallistically shapeshifting tableau On Lotusland draws inspiration from overlooking the Tucson cityscape at night, its cluster of lights surrounded by desolation. Alejo shifts from gritty overtones to keening, harmonically-tinged glissandos, Ashe bending her notes, the two rising to a slinky pulse tapped out on the body of the bass and eventually a plaintive neoromantic theme.

— delarue, New York Music Daily

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Derick Evans’ On Lotusland is far from the world that made Tennyson’s heroes mild-eyed and melancholy. There is a sharp attack by the bass and some guitar-ish iterations on the harp before we are buoyed by snapping, twanging strings and sparkling high notes giving a suggestion of flamenco before gliding into a lyrical duet.

— Linda Holt, ConcertoNet.com

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Inspired by an unsettling experience atop a mountain peak at night, he uses extended techniques liberally to recreate that jarring moment.

— Allison Young, Harp Column