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1.
Buddha v.1 08:51
2.
Buddha v.2 02:12
3.
Buddha v.3 06:30
4.
Buddha v.4 06:52
5.
6.

about

“Eastman” is a re-imagination of the guitar’s place in classical music through the lens of Julius Eastman’s groundbreaking musical approaches. Canadian Guitarist and Composer Emmanuel Jacob Lacopo is an artist driven by collaboration and innovation who aims to redefine the constraints of 21st century guitar. Produced by audio/visual specialist Amelya N.S.H., the album’s collaboration explores her work with intersectionality and the formation of spaces that allow marginalized artists and their art to thrive.

Julius Eastman composed in a style he labeled as “organic music”. He described the process as an undulating and repetitive style that is mainly additive. There’s an attempt to make every new section of music contain some information of the previous section, while sometimes removing material at a gradual and logical rate. In this album, evolving soundscapes of processed classical and electric guitars find a home in four different arrangements of Eastman’s “Buddha” and his seminal work, “Gay Guerilla”.

The graphic score and minimal performance instructions offered in Buddha, leave room for multiple differing interpretations:

Buddha v.1 compiles the available notes on the staves into their own respective harmonies and functions as a tape. Here, the electric guitar is showcased as a soloist instrument that uses the available notes to create thematic material that evolves over the course of the accompanying tape.

Buddha v.2 takes the harmonies from the first version and condenses it to two minutes. This version showcases a classical guitar performing alongside granular delay and reverb processing that expands its traditional sound world.

Through a time-mapped approach of the score, Buddha v.3 turns each of the 20 staves of music into their own respective electric guitar parts that are all played with e-bows. Each entrance for the 20 parts arrives at a specific time decided through the note’s physical position on the score.

Buddha v.4 bookends the group by employing a similar technique as in Buddha v.1. Contrastingly, the available harmonies are processed through generative and chance procedures to create unpredictable melodic and harmonic material using the score materials that Eastman provides. In this version, the classical guitar takes the role of the soloist electric guitar but presents the material in a more organized formal structure.

Finally, Eastman’s Gay Guerrilla, often performed on four pianos, closes the album in a new arrangement for over 30 electric guitars ranging from clean tones, distorted riffs, and heavily granulated material that creates a brand new sound-designed world of Eastman’s seminal work.

These arrangements showcase the modular interpretations that can be found within Eastman’s output that unite the traditional and avant-garde. From cascading tape tracks of dozens of electric guitars to lush granulated solo classical guitar, the album is both recognizably Eastman and uniquely Lacopo’s.

The cover art for “Eastman” features an image of Julius Eastman taken in Buffalo by an unknown photographer, and portraits from a newspaper clipping of the Buffalo Courier Express (Feb 11, 1979). We do not claim ownership over the photographs or likeness of Julius Eastman depicted as part of this project. They are included as part of the album art’s design in a further effort to bring Eastman’s critical presence to the forefront of this project. It is incredibly important that this record centers and spotlights his work, and that the music of Julius Eastman continues to be shared and celebrated as widely as possible.

Due to Bandcamp file size limitations, "Gay Guerrilla" is split into two separate parts for this Bandcamp edition only. Please email us if you'd like an uninterrupted audio file of the full piece and we will be happy to send it your way!

credits

released May 5, 2023

Emmanuel Jacob Lacopo: classical and electric guitars, production
Amelya N.S.H.: production, mixing, mastering

PPR | 039

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