Hear climate crisis-inspired music by Kazakh-British Galya Bisengalieva, along with music from Montreal's Saltland, Norway's Marja Mortensson and Daniel Herskedal, and John Luther Adams.
Hear new music by Galya Bisengalieva, a Kazakh-British composer whose album Aralkum is named after the desert that exists where the Aral Sea used to be. It’s been shrinking due to irrigation and drought. Titles of the record are named for the dam that has helped the northern part of the sea somewhat, "Kokaral," and the ghost-ship graveyard that exists where a bustling port used to be in Moynaq. There’s also music from Norway by Marja Mortensson, who performs the traditional singing of the Sámi people -rather like chanting- yoik, along with a drone and groove by tuba player Daniel Herskedal, in a piece called “A Storm is Rising.”
Listen to work by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy-winning composer and environmental activist John Luther Adams, from his record, Earth and the Great Weather. The longtime Alaska resident, now based in the American Southwest, saw firsthand the early warning signs of climate change. In his most recent book, Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska, he meditates on making art in a landscape acutely threatened by climate change.
Then, there’s music by Minnesota-born Kirsten Volness for the bass clarinet and marimba duo Transient Canvas. The work by Volness is called “Year Without A Summer” and was inspired by the impact of a volcanic explosion in Indonesia (Mount Tambora in the year 1815), whose effects were a three-year climate crisis felt worldwide. Also, hear music from the Montreal-based cellist, climate activist, and organizer Rebecca Foon, aka Saltland, where she layers multiple loops of her cello, atop a rich set of drones. Listen to the title track from her record, A Common Truth, which is an intense meditation about climate change.
Program #4413, Music About Climate Change (First aired 9/28/2020)
ARTIST: John Luther Adams Ensemble
WORK: John Luther Adams: The Place Where You Go To Listen [1:00]
RECORDING: John Luther Adams: Earth and the Great Weather
SOURCE: John Luther Adams
INFO: Available via Youtube Music, AppleMusic, and Spotify
ARTIST: Galya Bisengalieva
WORK: Kokaral [5:02]
RECORDING: Aralkum
SOURCE: One Little Independent
INFO: olirecords.com/shop/galya/aralkum
ARTIST: John Luther Adams Ensemble
WORK: John Luther Adams: The Place Where You Go To Listen [8:06]
RECORDING: John Luther Adams: Earth and the Great Weather
SOURCE: John Luther Adams
INFO: Available via Youtube Music, AppleMusic, and Spotify
ARTIST: Marja Mortensson, Daniel Herskedal
WORK: Eagnede fropmehkem - A Storm is Rising [7:36]
RECORDING: Mojhtestasse
SOURCE: Vuelie
INFO: marjamortensson.no
ARTIST: Transient Canvas
WORK: Kirsten Volness: Year Without a Summer [9:49]
RECORDING: Wired
SOURCE: New Focus Recordings fcr218
INFO: newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Galya Bisengalieva
WORK: Moynaq [8:11]
RECORDING: Aralkum
SOURCE: One Little Independent
INFO: olirecords.com/shop/galya/aralkum
ARTIST: Saltland (Rebecca Foon)
WORK: A Common Truth [4:13]
RECORDING: A Common Truth
SOURCE: Constellation Records 123
INFO: cstrecords.com