"This Is America - An Anthology 2020-2021" Limited Edition Triple CD, with a 40-page booklet, beautifully designed by Christopher Kornmann, Spit + Image Design.
Includes unlimited streaming of This Is America - An Anthology 2020-2021 (ICR023)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
"A City Upon a Hill?” is our reaction to the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The main theme is based on the infamous slogan, ‘Make America Great Again,’ in which each variation of the Americana-inspired theme becomes increasingly dissonant on the arrival of the word ‘again.’ Distorted and detuned electronic samples of politicians chanting the phrase, combined with sounds of protest, police helicopters, and stampeding animals circle and crowd the violin solo, culminating in a frenzied, sonic chaos that inevitably collapses in on itself.
The sonic dissonance is meant to echo the cognitive dissonance of the far right movement itself, as the piece chronicles the gradual radicalization of an individual who holds an idealized, nostalgic memory of a freedom and equality that has never truly existed in America; someone who believes themselves to be a true patriot while simultaneously undermining basic democratic values and American institutions.
The piece ends with the violin soloist slowly unraveling their D-string until their sound fades into obscurity. So, in this gaping silence of this detuned violin, we ask you, was America ever really great? - Rhea Fowler & Micaela Tobin
"City Upon a Hill?" was generously commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County (Irvine, CA)
supported by 19 fans who also own “Rhea Fowler & Micaela Tobin - "A City Upon a Hill?", for violin & electronics”
I saw them perform for free in Bryant Park in NYC; I had no idea who they were; boy was I pleased. By the way, Attacca is a musical term that means to literally attack a note. dlummox
supported by 19 fans who also own “Rhea Fowler & Micaela Tobin - "A City Upon a Hill?", for violin & electronics”
This is one of the most exciting cds I've heard in ages and I feel LUCKY to have discovered Wild Up and their recordings of Julius Eastman. Wow!! jamesaarons
There’s a quiet beauty to this remix album of compositions by Michael Vincent Waller, with contributions from JLin, Prefuse 73, & more. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 1, 2024
supported by 18 fans who also own “Rhea Fowler & Micaela Tobin - "A City Upon a Hill?", for violin & electronics”
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