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Ellen Reid — the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and sound artist renowned for her “ineffably moving” (LA Times) works that span opera, sound design, film scoring, avant-pop, and so much more — announces Big Majestic, a stunning new album out August 30 via Amsterdam Records / Eclipse Projects. It’s a transformative and meditative work that finds Reid exercising her towering compositional command and casting her unique voice into fresh shapes as it traverses the worlds of ambient, jazz, post-rock, and minimalism.
Accompanying the album’s announcement, Reid shares the album opener and title track “Big Majestic,” a swelling and regal overture for the breaking dawn that features Reid’s monolithic synth performance.
Big Majestic assembles music from Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK, a GPS-enabled work of public art that reimagines urban parks as interactive soundscapes. SOUNDWALK premiered in New York's Central Park, and expanded to urban parkland around the world, including Los Angeles's Griffith Park, London's Regent's Park & Primrose Hill, and Tokyo's Ueno Park. It won acclaim not only for its inventive premise and enveloping execution — The Washington Post praised it as “an intoxicating musical adventure” — but for its newfound utility during the socially-distanced height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, with Big Majestic, Reid proves that these works stand on their own divorced from their site-specific presentations, and arranges them to provide an immersive and cohesive arc. Influenced by the likes of Brian Eno, Nala Sinephro, Kamasi Washington, Air, and Floating Points, Reid is bold and graceful, bringing placid atmospheres into ominous complication with the subtlety of the sun moving across the sky. Vivid and evocative, these works capture the essence of the urban oases that inspired them with a magical realist flair.
To bring these disparate sonic locales to life, Reid calls upon a cast of luminaries from across the musical spectrum to deliver indelible performances. Kronos Quartet soar above desert vistas on “West Coast Sky Forever,” Shabaka Hutchings launches into kaleidoscopic shakuhachi and tenor saxophone meditations on “Spiritual Sun” and “Primrose Hill,” James McVinnie embarks on an electrifying synth organ epic on “Blue Sky | Mirrored Glass,” and the otherworldly voice of Lisel beckons the listener into the unknown on both renditions of “Pavilion In The Trees.”
At times mystical and psychedelic or solemn and reverent, Big Majestic is a generous and transportative record. Throughout, Reid revels in the freedom of space and the power of gesture — crafting a marvelous and versatile work that does justice to these beloved and wondrous natural sanctuaries.
credits
released August 30, 2024
Music from the award-winning public art project, Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK
Musicians:
Kronos Quartet
Shabaka Hutchings, shakuhachi & saxophone
Alex Sopp, flute
Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Rachel Drehmann, horn
Riley Mulherkar, trumpet
Sidney Hopson, percussion
Kyle Poole, drums
Lisel, voice
Ashley Jackson, harp
James McVinnie, synth organ
Mathis Picard, piano
Ellen Reid, synthesizer
Mona Tian, violin
Nadia Sirota, viola
Gabriel Cabezas, cello
Russell Hall, bass
--------------
Produced by Ellen Reid, James Lemkin & Nadia Sirota
Recorded remotely by the musicians.
Shabaka Hutchings recorded by Lewis Pesacov at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles
Edited by Ellen Reid and Daniel Neumann
Mixed and Mastered by Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavík
Artwork by Simon Dargan at Playtime Studio, Los Angeles
Photography by Erin Baiano
LP package design by Ben Tousley
Executive Producer - Eclipse Projects
--------------
This album is supported in part by the Sundance Institute Interdisciplinary Program and the CalArts Alumnx Council Seed Grant Program.
Big Majestic is generously supported by Kiki and David Gindler, Dr. Wanda Bryant, and Fariba Ghaffari, with additional support by Ruth Gilliland and Arthur Rieman, Anne-Marie Spataru, Nancy and Barry Sanders, Nancy Stanley, and Ruth Eliel and Bill Cooney
Blue Sky | Mirrored Glass was commissioned by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting
Kronos Quartet appears courtesy of Kronos Performing Arts Association
Shabaka Hutchings appears courtesy of Impulse! Records
All music by Ellen Reid, except where noted
Ellen Reid’s music is exclusively published by Chester Music, part of the Wise Music Group. (ASCAP)
“Spiritual Sun” and “Primrose Hill”
By Shabaka Hutchings & Ellen Reid
Published by BMG, Chester Music Ltd
“Mt. Lee”
By Riley Mulherkar & Ellen Reid
Mulherkar Music (ASCAP), Chester Music Ltd
Ellen Reid is one of the most innovative artists of her generation. A composer and sound artist whose breadth of work spans
opera, sound design, film scoring, ensemble and choral writing, she was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her opera,
p r i s m....more
A work of wondrous astonishment and glorious bedevilment.
Roomful of Teeth - Rough Magic
In retrospect my absolute favourite release of 2023 Giacomo Bruzzo
Another part of this project's extensive dedication to the works of the truly great Julius Eastman, whose legend and status as one of America's major composers grows expidentially with the passing of each and every year. Gavin Hellyer
Wonderful recording! Inspired writing by 6 composers in a wide variety of styles. The playing is superb as well and beautifully recorded. Love it! Cordâme
Intense, free-roaming piano-based compositions from avant-garde composer Gabriel Vicéns, inspired by the decay of Roman & Egyptian frescoes. Bandcamp New & Notable May 17, 2024
Argentine composer and guitarist Francisco del Pino achieves a stunning art-song hybrid on the first album to be released under his own name. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 19, 2021
A remix album crafted during Covid lockdown, this LP twists classical compositions into dazzling electronic ambient forms. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 31, 2022
