eco|tonal is the Brooklyn-based duo of Iva Casián-Lakoš (cello, voice) and David Crowell (saxophones, electronics, guitar), creating immersive electro-acoustic music described by The Guardian as a “haunting duet.” Their performance appears on Crowell’s album Point | Cloud, named one of The Guardian’s Top 10 Contemporary Classical Albums of 2024.
With a sound that bridges ambient, contemporary classical, and experimental indie pop, eco|tonal draws from each member’s diverse musical background to craft spacious yet texturally rich compositions. The project takes its name from an ecotone—a transitional zone between ecosystems—reflecting the duo’s fluid, genre-blending approach.
eco|tonal has performed at venues and festivals including Symphony Space, Scena Amadeo (Zagreb), Vassar College, the New Directions Cello Festival (Bombyx Center), and the Rites of Spring Festival (Custer Observatory).
saxophone, electric guitar & electronics
David Crowell is a composer and instrumentalist (saxophones, guitar) whose music has been called “coiled and contained, but pulsing with small, ecstatic fibrillations” by the New York Times. The Guardian, in naming his record Point / Cloud as a 2024 Top Ten Contemporary Album of the Year, said that “Crowell constructs geometric structures that have a rare sense of kinetic energy: this is music that glistens, sparkles, and dances with joy.”
David's music has been performed at venues and festivals including New York City's MoMA, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dumbarton Oaks, Library of Congress, Bang on a Can Summer Marathon, Caramoor Festival, Tribeca New Music Festival, MATA Festival, and Kultursommer Wien. Commissioning ensembles and institutions have included A Far Cry, Argus Quartet, JACK Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, Dumbarton Oaks, Da Camera Los Angeles, and the Tribeca New Music Festival.
As a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, David toured four continents during the 2012-15 revival of Einstein on the Beach. Other performance highlights include Koyaanisqatsi with the N.Y. Philharmonic, with Steve Reich at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the Bang on a Can Orchestra performing Ornette Coleman, conducted by Awadagin Pratt.
cello & voice
Iva Casian-Lakoš is a cellist, vocalist, and improviser praised for her “fiery cello playing” (David Lang) and voice of “exquisite fragility” (Christian Carey). A first-generation American ofMexican and Croatian descent, she performs throughout North America and Europe withensembles including eco|tonal, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Ensemble Illyrica, and PinkNoise.
She has toured internationally with Bang on a Can All-Stars, and performed with the American Modern Opera Company (dir. Peter Sellars) at Lincoln Center and Tanglewood. Her work appears on David Crowell’s Point | Cloud (The Guardian’s Top 10 Contemporary Classical Albums of 2024), and on Fire Ecologies (New Focus, 2025). She also has a forthcoming album with Joan La Barbara.
Active as a composer and improviser, Iva’s work has been featured internationally at venues including Austria’s National Library (Vienna), Scena Amadeo (Zagreb), and across the U.S. at Guild Hall Museum, Noguchi Museum, McNay Art Museum, ModFest, UNCW New Music Festival, and the New Directions Cello Festival.