Continuing her series of large works inspired by the dystopic writings of Octavia E. Butler, composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell assembles Chicago improvisers including cellist Tomeka Reid, percussionist Avreeayl Ra, trumpeter Ben LaMar Gay and interdisciplinary artist Lisa E. Harris to explore facets of Butler's Parable of the Sower.
Label: FPE Records Catalog ID: FPE027CD Squidco Product Code: 29524
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2020 Country: USA Packaging: Digipack Recorded live at Fullerton Hall, at the Art Institute of Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois, on June 22nd, 2017, by Caleb Willitz.
11. Purify Me with the Power to Self Transform 5:25
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descriptions, reviews, &c.
"The work of award-winning African American science fiction author Octavia E. Butler becomes increasingly prophetic as we move through the challenges of the new century. Her novels Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1996) use fiction to illuminate a horrific unraveling of 21st-century America into a despotic chaos where its once-middle-class citizens struggle to survive in an incredibly violent and fragmented reality, void of normalcy, family, and resources.
In the 1990s, Butler's Parables warned readers about a possible disintegration of American culture and infrastructure, among the many risks of tyrannical rule. Within Butler's storyline, the character Lauren Oya Olamina, a preacher's daughter of African heritage, helps to rebuild her community through offering Earthseed, an egalitarian philosophy and spiritual practice which honors inquiry, independent thinking, and realistic acceptance of constant change.
Inspired by and in tribute to Octavia E. Butler, composers Nicole M. Mitchell and Lisa E. Harris have created their own sonic Earthseed, also in response to the real chaos and horrific nature of our times. Earthseed is the third of Mitchell's projects inspired by the literature of Butler and marks a first compositional collaboration between Harris and Mitchell."-FPE
"Before Earthseed, flutist and composer Nicole Mitchell had already composed two large-scale works inspired by the work of sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler. This third one, a collaboration with opera composer and multimedia artist Lisa E. Harris, is different on multiple levels-but most glaringly in its humor. Where Mitchell's Xenogenesis Suite and Intergalactic Beings could crush the listener with their heavy content, Harris leavens the proceedings; on one piece, "Yes and Know," she even turns laughter itself into a motif. That alone makes Earthseed, if no less abstract than its predecessors, a more accessible and fun listen.
The laughter is part of a vast array of vocal noises, timbres, and techniques that form the album's dominant element. "Phallus and Chalice" finds Harris and male vocalist Julian Otis wordlessly conversing/bickering, with interjections from an uncredited third voice (probably Mitchell's), to the delight of the audience. (The album was recorded live at the Art Institute of Chicago.) Their exchanges are shadowed by Mitchell and a chamber ensemble of violinist Zara Zaharieva, trumpeter Ben LaMar Gay, cellist Tomeka Reid, and percussionist Avreeayl Ra. It's a fascinating juxtaposition: The instruments play the kind of atonal counterpoint one expects from free jazz, but the context of the vocals gives them a sense of focus and purpose.
Still, Harris and Otis offer plenty of operatic performances and text recitations between the strange noises and expectorations, while the ensemble plays some consonant, often delicate arrangements and improvisations-though usually in service of the vocals, as on the lovely "Ownness"-between its outside excursions. (Notably, Mitchell's flute is among the least prominent voices; one wonders if she similarly took a secondary place in the work's creation.) In toto, it forms a whole that is unearthly but also familiar and compelling, much like Butler's tales of strange universes that uncannily reflect our own."-Michael J. West, JazzTimes