“In the work’s second half (it’s about 72 minutes long) the flutes and piano work together in leading the rest of the orchestra in carving out a rich hypnotic soundscape of joy and merriment.”
Recorded live by American pianist / singer / composer Julius Eastman himself on piano and the S.E.M. Ensemble, a chamber music group, at Composers Forum in Albany, The Arts Center on the Campus of the Academy of the Holy Names, Albany, New York, on 6 November 1974, this work is the only known live performance of Eastman’s “Femenine” opus made during the composer’s lifetime. Piano, woodwinds, stringed instruments, synthesiser, pitched percussion instruments such as vibraphone, and Eastman’s own invention (a machine that shook sleigh bells constantly when switched on) join in creating an airily graceful, light-filled and complex work of many moods and a questing spirit.
Originally published by The Sound Projector.Read it on The Sound Projector