Julius Eastman Volume 5 : Gay Guerrilla

Description

Wild Up is hailed as one of the most exciting classical music ensembles by nearly all renowned institutions and critics. Founded in 2010 by artistic director Christopher Rountree with 15 musicians, this GRAMMY® Award-nominated ensemble now includes 32 performers, among them award-winning composers, experts in contemporary techniques, specialists in Baroque music, activists, studio musicians, independent artists, and teachers. Julius Eastman Vol. 5: Gay Guerilla is the captivating final chapter in Wild Up’s Eastman cycle. In a provocative work, Gay Guerilla stands among Eastman’s boldest statements: a landmark piece that celebrates homosexuality and imagines a true revolution for gay liberation. Wild Up confirms the view of musicologist and composer Luciano Chessa: “If all of Eastman’s music, except this one piece, were to disappear, Gay Guerrilla would still be enough to secure him a place of honor in the history of 20th-century music.” Throughout Volume 5, the album highlights the compositional features and urgent themes that make Eastman a singular figure in American musical experimentation: subversive allusions to Lutheran hymns, passages of almost unbearable tension marked by frenzied repetition, and explosions of melodic ecstasy. It is proof of the ensemble’s finely honed ability to perform Eastman’s highly distinctive scores in a spirit worthy of their creator.