Julius Eastman
Julius Eastman (October 27, 1940-May 28, 1990) was a African-American composer of minimalist tendencies. His music was among the first to combine minimalist processes with elements of pop music, and he often gave his pieces titles of provocative political intent, such as Evil Nigger and Gay Guerrilla. Eastman\'s music was often written according to what he considered an organic principle by which each new section of a work contained all the information from previous sections, though sometimes the information is taken out at a gradual and logical rate.
Julius Eastman (October 27, 1940-May 28, 1990) was a African-American composer of minimalist tendencies. His music was among the first to combine minimalist processes with elements of pop music, and he often gave his pieces titles of provocative political intent, such as Evil Nigger and Gay Guerrilla. Eastman\'s music was often written according to what he considered an organic principle by which each new section of a work contained all the information from previous sections, though sometimes the information is taken out at a gradual and logical rate.
Julius Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence
2024 Stock. Wild Up — the multiple-time GRAMMY®-nominated contemporary music ensemble that has been called “a raucous, grungy, irresistibly exuberant … fun-loving, exceptionally virtuosic family” by The New York Times and turned in a stunning NPR Tiny Desk performance last year — announces Julius Eastman Vol. 4: The Holy Presence, out June 21, 2024 via New Amsterdam Records.
Opening track, “Our Father, is an accompanied duet with both vocal parts performed by Davóne Tines. With open harmonies th…
Julius Eastman Vol. 3: If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?
2024 Stock. Wild Up’s Anthology engages with the complex history of Julius Eastman’s legacy and ideas, including the titles of his work. Each person involved in making this Anthology negotiates their position and relationship to the n-word; thus, the word appears in several permutations throughout. We chose to use Eastman’s given titles in the track listing to honor the composer’s intentions. With this seven-volume project, Wild Up aims to be part of the ongoing social, political, and artistic d…
Julius Eastman Vol. 2: Joy Boy
2024 Stock. On June 17, 2022, the acclaimed Los Angeles-based new music collective Wild Up will release Julius Eastman Vol. 2: Joy Boy, the follow-up to last year’s Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine, a record that was hailed “a masterpiece” (The New York Times), “instantly recognizable” (Vogue), “absorbing” (Pitchfork, in its 8.1 review), and “singularly jubilant” (NPR, who placed Femenine among its top 10 records of 2021, across all genres).
Arriving, once more, on New Amsterdam Records, Julius E…
Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine
2024 Stock. Out now, Los Angeles-based musical collective, Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine is the opening entry in Wild Up’s multi-volume anthology celebrating Julius Eastman, the late composer whose amalgamated musical vision was repeatedly dismissed during its day, but is now being unearthed to critical acclaim. Championed by The New York Times for their “boisterously theatrical sensibility,” Wild Up slowly comes alive inside this recording of “Femenine,” the epitome of Eastman’s longform “org…
They Said! - On Julius Eastman's Prelude To The Holy Presence Of Joan D'Arc
THEY SAID! simmers, boils and simmers again on the 1981 solo vocal composition Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc. Language, listening and voice are at the core of the essay. As is the relationship between Julius Eastman and Joan d’Arc which, as readers, we’re invited not to divide into two individual histories but encouraged to consider a singular position which both figures may have inhabited across distances. The essay opens with an exclamation mark which weaves through the text, aliv…
Femenine
2024 Stock. Released in 4-panel card sleeve with fold-out poster insert. This recording is the premiere release of Julius Eastman's Femenine, for chamber ensemble. It is Femenine's only known recording, documenting a 1974 performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble, with the composer on piano, which has lain unheard for decades. The music of Julius Eastman (1940-90) is enjoying an on-going period of rediscovery. Known best in the past for his work with figures like Peter Maxwell Davies, Arthur Russell an…
Composing While Black. Afrodiasporic New Music Today (Book)
Composing While Black presents unique new perspectives on Afrodiasporic contemporary composers active between 1960 and the present, a period that academic inquiry, concert programming, and journalistic accounts have largely ignored up to now, particularly in Europe. This interdisciplinary essay collection engages with opera, orchestral, chamber, instrumental, and electroacoustic music, as well as sound art, conceptual art, and digital intermedia, revealing Afrodiasporic new music as an intercult…
Piano Interpretations
2023 Stock. Kukuruz Quartet started 2014 their involvement with Julius Eastman and his musical works. In 2017, their performance at documenta 14 in the Megaro Mousikis concert hall in Athens earned a standing ovation. They performed works by Julius Eastman: 'Evil Nigger', 'Gay Guerrilla', 'Buddha' and 'Fugue No. 7'. The recording of these compositions followed in November 2017 on four Steinway D pianos in the main hall of the historic Radiostudio Zürich. Composer, trombonist and scholar George E…
The Nigger Series
Last copies...Over the last decade and a half, it’s been incredible to witness the ascending star of the composer Julius Eastman. A celebrated figure within the New York experimental music scene during the 1970s and '80s, over the years following his untimely death in 1990 he and his work drifted into sinful neglect. Largely thanks to a series of archival releases attending to his work - New World Records' “Unjust Malaise” and “The Zürich Concert”, Frozen Reeds' “Femenine”, and Week-End Records’…
Two Extended Pieces for Four Pianos
Building on the back of their stunning release of Ensemble 0’s rendering of "Femenine" issued earlier this year, Sub Rosa returns with "Two Extended Pieces for Four Pianos", featuring brand new recording of two seminal works composed by Julius Eastman between 1970 and 1980 - "Evil N*gger" (1979) and "Crazy N*gger" (1980) - realised by Nicolas Horvath, Melaine Dalibert, Stephane Ginsburgh, and Wilhem Latchoumia.
Stay On It
In 1973, avant-garde ensemble Creative Associates goes on a tour of Europe with Eastman’s brand new piece in their repertoire, and in short: “Stay on It” turns the coordinates of avant-garde music on its head. It is minimal, but unashamedly groovy; it is open to improvisation, grants performers all the freedom they could need, but it isn’t jazz and never slips into the non-committal. It is open to theatrical and performative elements, but also to the poetic and lyrical. It is strict and demands …
We Have Delivered Ourselves From the Tonal - Of, Towards, On, For Julius Eastman
2022 Repress * Softcover, English, 260 pages, B/W*An absolutely stunning achievement, “We Have Delivered Ourselves From the Tonal – Of, Towards, On, For Julius Eastman” - published by Archive Books and SAVVY Contemporary - gathers a collection of essays, librettos, lyrics, memories, photos, personal anecdotes by musicians, visual artists, researchers and archivers that pays homage to the work and life of African-American composer, musician, performer, activist Julius Eastman. Clocking in at 264 …
Three Extended Pieces for Four Pianos
Building on the back of their stunning release of Ensemble 0’s rendering of "Femenine" issued earlier this year, Sub Rosa returns with "Three Extended Pieces for Four Pianos", featuring brand new recording of three seminal works composed by Julius Eastman between 1970 and 1980 - "Evil N*gger" (1979) "Gay Guerilla" (1980) and "Crazy N*gger" (1980) - realised by Nicolas Horvath, Melaine Dalibert, Stephane Ginsburgh, and Wilhem Latchoumia.
Released as a beautiful double CD with brand new liner not…
Femenine (Apartment House)
Apartment House give new life to Julius Eastman’s irrepressible ensemble piece from 1974. Unbounded energy and clarity of sound. Unmissable. Read the following interview with the Apartment House's director, cellist cellist Anton LukoszeviezeWhen did you first play Julius Eastman's music, and when had you become aware of it?I first performed Eastman's music in 2016, which was a revelation for me, as the extant scores are rather fragmentary and incomplete, some are even just transcriptions from ar…
Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music
Composer-performer Julius Eastman (1940-90) was an enigma, both comfortable and uncomfortable in the many worlds he inhabited: black, white, gay, straight, classical music, disco, academia, and downtown New York. His music, insistent and straightforward, resists labels and seethes with a tension that resonates with musicians, scholars, and audiences today. Eastman's provocative titles, including Gay Guerrilla, Evil Nigger, Crazy Nigger, and others, assault us with his obsessions. Eastman tested …
The Zürich Concert
Just when you think you are grasping the breadth and quality of the music of Julius Eastman (1940 - 1990), a recording such as Julius Eastman: The Zürich Concert shows up, and you have to go back and reassess his work and wonder what will show up next. This recording is from a 1980 solo seventy-minute improvisatory concert in Zürich, a cherished cassette made by a friend of Eastman's, who recently realized its uniqueness and decided that he should share it.The Zürich Concert was performed on Oct…
Unchained
A lenghty composition for four pianos by two legendary composers, African-American Julius Eastman, and Polish minimalist Tomasz Sikorski, here performed by Emilia Sitarz, Bartek WÄ…sik, Joanna Duda and Mischa KozÅ‚owski, and it's absolutely amazing for its strange combination of frivolity and darkness. It sounds light and repetitive, with phrases that move like long grass in the wind, almost dancing and joyful, only to come down again in dark rumbling chords full of dread and ill omen. As …
Unjust Malaise
This three-disc set marks the first appearance on disc of the music of the African-American composer Julius Eastman (1940–1990), who died sixteen years ago under unexplained circumstances and whose musical legacy was thought lost. This comprehensive and definitive document, which comprises almost all of Eastman’s signature works, will undoubtedly be a revelation for those who have thus far been unable to hear his work. Eastman was an energizing underground figure, one whose forms are clear, whos…