Joining Kairos's long-standing commitment to issuing vibrant contemporary interpretations of seminal works of avant-garde and experimental composition, comes an absolutely incredible new recording by the Talea Ensemble and the Harlem Chamber Players of Julius Eastman's monumentally important "Femenine". A joyous, pulsing immersion into complex tonality that draws to light the piece's connection to the Minimalism of Reich and Glass, culminating as a brilliantly driving work of diamond like precision, built from repeated cycles that rise, fall, slowly build, and deconstruct as they go.

Back in 2016, the Helsinki based imprint, Frozen Reeds, issued a compact disc entitled “Femenine” by a little known composer named Julius Eastman. While it appeared more than a decade after New World Records’ comprehensive survey of Eastman’s work, “Unjust Malaise” - the release of which passed with little mention - the stars seemed to align. The response was overwhelming, radically elevating the legacy of a figure who had been nearly lost. Since the original release of “Femenine”, Eastman has become regarded as a singular voice within his generation of post-minimalist composers who had singularly infused the idiom with a form of conceptualism that was distinctly African American and queer. Since the initial release of “Femenine”, Eastman’s catalog has swelled to include previously unissued archival recordings from the composer’s lifetime as well as numerous reinterpretations of his compositions by contemporary ensembles. Among the latter, unsurprisingly, “Femenine” - the piece that he had described as sounding like: “the angels opening up heaven” - has proven to be among the most popular. First came Apartment House’s rendition, issued by Another Timbre, then ensemble 0 and Aum Grand Ensemble’s, released by Sub Rosa in 2021, and then New Amsterdam’s release of Wild Up’s interpretation later that year. Each of these has served to illuminate the complex dimensions, scope, and sense of possibility lingering within the piece. Now, Kairos delivers another remarkable rendition of “Femenine”, this time by the Talea Ensemble and the Harlem Chamber Players, returning the work to the New York context from which it was initially conceived. Imbued with a striking sense of clarity, it’s among our favourite new renditions of Eastman’s incredible “Femenine” to date.

During his tragically brief life, Julius Eastman burned like fire. A brilliant composer, pianist, and vocalist who, with contemporaries like Arthur Russell, Arnold Dreyblatt, Ellen Fullman, Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca, and numerous others, pioneered the development of post-minimal music, he was among only a handful of African American artists at the centre of New York’s experimental music scene during the 1970s and 80s. Contentious, confrontational, and brash, he was also among the first artists to draw the subjects of ethnicity and queer identity into conceptual sphere of that scene; interventions that rarely went down well within a musical context that was predominately middle-class, heteronormative, and white. Sadly, this led to attacks upon him by composers like John Cage, a factor that contributed to the long lasting degradation of his legacy that has only just begun to be repaired.

While Eastman was a celebrated and active 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 the composer Mary Jane Leach, who tracked down many recordings and scores that had been thought lost when Eastman had been made homeless, and was a tireless supporter of his legacy, assembling New World Records’ comprehensive survey of the composer’s work, “Unjust Malaise”, as well as authoring the book, “Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music”, attention slowly began to move his way across the period between 2005 and 2015. All of this set the stage for the perfect storm that was the first release of “Femenine” in 2016.

Eastman's “Femenine”, a work for chamber ensemble, was originally conceived for and recorded by S.E.M. Ensemble, the group within which the composer primarily worked during the 1970s, falling within a remarkably productive period that also gave way to works like “Stay on It”, “Joy Boy”, and its lost counterpart “Masculine”. Of these, “Femenine” displays the most explicit connection to the minimalist canon, revealing a distinct sympathy with the work of composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich. Composed from intertwining wind instruments, piano, violin, pitched percussion, synthesizer and sleigh bells, it’s a joyous, pulsing immersion into complex tonality that sprawls to roughly 72 minutes in length.

Like the Apartment House, ensemble 0 and Aum Grand Ensemble, and Wild Up renditions before, the new Talea Ensemble and the Harlem Chamber Players realisation “Femenine” - arranged by Chris McIntyre of Eastman - stays relatively true to the composer’s original conceptualisation for S.E.M. Ensemble, while bringing some subtle new to the work. Where the original has something of pastoral feel and embraces the ambiences of the room within which it was performed in 1974, the Talea Ensemble / Harlem Chamber Players realisation on the other hand has a slightly more direct and focussed feel, embracing the composition’s rhythmic elements with more focus and vigour, arguably drawing out its close connection to the movement of minimalism than was revealed by Eastman’s own arrangements. Once heard, Eastman’s genius can’t be ignored, nor can there be much wonder regarding why this is the work that launched his entry into the broader consciousness that he always deserved.

Kairos’ fantastic new CD edition of the Talea Ensemble and the Harlem Chamber Players’ rendition of the composer’s “Femenine” reveals the remarkable dynamics and breadth of this seminal work.