Ted Hearne/Saul Williams: Place

by Steven Bradshaw, Ted Hearne, Sophia Byrd

Overview

Place, with music by Ted Hearne and texts mostly by Saul Williams, has been called an oratorio, and indeed there is a small choral role for the Chicago Children's Chorus. One might also call it a song cycle; solo voices, drawn from rock and jazz styles as well as from classical music, predominate, and the work depends on single voices and ensembles who inhabit specific ideas. As with much of Hearne's other work, the texts are political, focusing on gentrification (there is a spoken antiphonal movement beginning "Gentrification is a generational conversation that has gone by many names"), the dispossession of Native Americans, and other themes. Listeners will evaluate these ideas for themselves, but the music is worth hearing for those of any persuasion. Hearne weaves together greatly disparate sounds in a coherent whole. Voices are of many types and may be modified by electronic processing, and the 15-player Place Orchestra, acoustic except for guitar, bass, keyboards, and mixer processing, accomplishes such striking juxtapositions of sounds that it sounds like a much larger group. The movements, too, differ from one another, but a bit of sampling is likely to give potential listeners an idea of what the music is all about and to affirm that it is fresh and new. Hearne's ability to use popular voice timbres in music that is not pop-influenced per se is notable. Radio programmers should note the obscenity in the final track. This release received two 2020 Grammy nominations, for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Recording and Best Composition. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	04/03/2020
Label:	New Amsterdam Records
UPC:	0798304468380
Rank:	164839

Tracks

1. Place~Part 1: Balloons
2. Place~Part 1: Boundary
3. Place~Part 1: Interview
4. Place~Part 1: Maps (Appropriation)
5. Place~Part 1: Breakup Letter
6. Place~Part 1: Guilt
7. Place~Part 2: Is it ok to say?
8. Place~Part 2: What About My Son?
9. Place~Part 2: Displacement bloop
10. Place~Part 2: This Land Was Worth Every War
11. Place~Part 2: The Tales You Tell Your Children
12. Place~Part 2: New Faces
13. Place~Part 2: Running to Us All (written for hands over mouths)
14. Place~Part 2: Hallelujah in White
15. Place~Part 2: A Thought
16. Place~Part 2: The Guilt That I Feel Is Freedom
17. Place~Part 2: You Were Never Comfortable With Intimacy
18. Place~Part 2: Beneath the ruins are older ruins.
19. Place~Part 3: Colonizing Space

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Ted Hearne   Primary Artist,Vocals
Steven Bradshaw   Primary Artist,Vocals
Sophia Byrd   Primary Artist,Vocals
Chicago Children's Choir   Choir/Chorus
Taylor Levine   Vocals
Philip White   Vocals
Sol Ruiz   Vocals
Isaiah Robinson   Vocals
Rage Thormbones   Ensemble
Ayanna Woods   Vocals
Place Orchestra   Orchestra
Saul Williams   Vocals
Josephine Lee   Vocals
Gustavo Dudamel   Music Direction

Technical Credits

Ted Hearne   Producer,Text,Composer
Andrew Garver   Mastering
Nicholas Deyoe   Editing
Nick Tipp   Mixing,Editing,Engineer,Producer
Ryder Bach   Editing
Giosue Greco   Editing
Sanford Biggers   Artwork
Molly Haig   Graphic Design
Wolfgang Woodcock   Editing
Saul Williams   Text
Hiro Goto   Editing
Laura Grey   Graphic Design