Woah, this is unreal! Mr. Coates already had a passing grade in my class, he didn’t need all this extra credit. He released that record of John Luther Adams’s Canticles of the Sky as a limited vinyl release already. Now it’s looking like he’ll be releasing it across all platforms? Color me impressed! And you can listen to the blissful track “Sky With Nameless Colors” right now down below? Wow!
Oh, wait, seriously!? It will be not just Canticles of the Sky — but will be expanded to include Three High Places, another Adams composition written in 2007 in memory of his friend and collaborator Gordon Wright?!? Damn. This is certainly some Valedictorian-level brown-nosing!
And what’s attached here to the packet as well? Ugh. Are you kidding me? It says here that Coates will ALSO be curating an event called Deep Minimalism 2.0, a weekend of music focused on deep listening and concentration on November 2 and 3 — with performances by Morton Feldman, Malibu, and Liz Harris’s Nivhek project among others! Egad! This man’s unstoppable.
Naturally, Coates will be there himself, performing these composition composed by Adams, with a group of 12 cellists. It says here “the name of the festival comes from my favorite record, Pop 2, but like with minimalism.” (It doesn’t really say that, but if only!) There is an actual quote from Coates here, though:
Making this recording was not only about creating the most finely tuned interpretation of the piece in terms of frequencies and dynamics, but was also a chance to do something I have always wanted to do; to make a study in colour. Inspired by paintings by Hilma af Klint and Agnes Martin, I had a chance to build an overall image using different playing techniques and microphone combinations.
Canticles of the Sky / Three High Places is available now via RVNG, and you can check out more on the Southbank Center music event, Deep Minimalism 2.0, right here. I’m calling the dean of student life right now, my grading scale just can’t handle all this goodness! Looks like I’ll have to fail everyone else in the class. It’s only fair!
Canticles of the Sky / Three High Places tracklisting:
01. Sky With Four Suns
02. Sky With Four Moons
03. Sky With Nameless Colors
04. Sky With Endless Stars
05. Above Sunset Pass
06. The Wind At Maclaren Summit
07. Looking Toward Hope
08. Above Sunset Pass (Alt FX Render)
More about: Oliver Coates
