Nicole Mitchell & Lisa E Harris: Earthseed

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Tomeka Reid (clo)
Avreeayl Ra (perc)
Nicole M Mitchell (fl, elec)
Julian Otis (v)
Zara Zaharieva (vn)
Lisa E Harris (v, theremin, elec)
Ben Lamar Gay (t)

Label:

FPE

July/2020

Media Format:

CD

Catalogue Number:

FPE27

RecordDate:

2017

Prolific Chicagoan flautist-bandleader Mitchell has proved herself a dynamic collaborator in an eventful career, as her work with the likes of Joelle Leandre, Roscoe Mitchell and Haki Madhubuti attests. This meeting with vocalist Lisa E Harris is another investigation of the work of trailblazing Afro-futurist author Octavia E Butler, and stands as a notable companion piece to two acclaimed previous releases, 2008's Intergalactic Beings and 2014's Xenogenesis Suite. A sense of both dreaded urgency and fertile ecstasy is a loose common denominator in the series and here it is given a superlative new dimension by the composing of the two co-leaders who are ably supported by a fine ensemble that is totally on point during this live performance. The arrangements draw on a deeply-rooted vocabulary of ‘sound painting’ in the lineage of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, of which Mitchell is a key member, but it is the careful layering and criss-crossing of numerous other elements – spoken word; operatic chanted vocals (especially on the fraught ‘Yes And Know’), percussive African rhythms and stark gusts of electronics – that make the work enthralling. Mitchell and Harris are two strong personalities, whose musical vision conveys the struggle and salvation present in the source material but the input of the likes of cellist Tomeka Reid, violinist and Zara Zaharieva among others should not to be overlooked.

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