Celebrated UK producer Loraine James joins Phantom Limb for breathtaking homage to vital NYC composer Julius Eastman, reinterpreting, reimagining and responding to key works for a brand new album.

In 1990, the composer Julius Eastman quietly passed away, out of the spotlight, a young man. By his death substance-addicted, homeless and broke, he was unforgivably overlooked in his lifetime, but the legacy of creative work he leaves is far more befitting to celebration than destitution. Only a portion of his music remains - a deeply regrettable sidenote to an already heartbreaking story - but this work represents a glorious and beautifully hued depiction of a composer totally in step with any modern great we could name.

Phantom Limb are long-term fans of both Eastman and Loraine James. Using their rare, fortuitous connection with Julius’ surviving brother Gerry, the label began this new project in summer 2021, hoping to continue the current tide of efforts to reinstate Eastman’s rightful place in 20th-century composition. Loraine was offered a zip drive of Eastman originals (courtesy of Gerry Eastman), Renee Levine-Packer & Mary Jane Leach’s illuminating biography Gay Guerilla (University of Rochester Press, 2015), and transcribed MIDI stems (courtesy of Phantom Limb A&R James Vella), and the resulting album Building Something Beautiful For Me carries the Eastman torch with finesse and sensitivity. Loraine employs samples, melodic motifs, themes and imagery, and inspiration from Eastman’s canon, slicing, editing, pulling apart and playing samples like instruments to craft a stunning album that venerates Eastman’s genius while adhering to her own.

Speaking in similar tongues as young, gay, Black, independent creatives in a challenging environment, the two musicians are bound closely together, despite a six-year gap between their lives ever intersecting. James includes the original Eastman title in many of her tracks, appending the source material in parentheses to mark the lineage of the work - a clear, traceable thread from the heavenly to the sublime.

Album opener “Maybe If I” riffs on Eastman staple Stay On It. Its arrestingly pretty central melody is reshaped into a living, undulating canvas on which James’ IDM-inspired beat production flickers and swirls. A repeated vocal line pulls Eastman’s towering work of modern minimalism towards reclassification as a “song”.

In keeping with key Eastman codes, Phantom Limb engaged Black creatives to complete the record, including acclaimed designer Dennis McInnes for the album packaging, which is inspired by Eastman’s marginalia on his own (surviving) manuscript pages: “we sought to visually convey the complexity of what we may see as beautiful, how beauty is misunderstood and often lies beneath the surface.”

Loraine James - Maybe If I (Stay On It)

New track from MINIMAL CITY VOL.2 is out now through PETITE VICTORY COLLECTIVE on BANDCAMP
Delighted to be part of this awesome project ; making music based on samples recorded with trashes from a detrash day.
All proceeds from the sales of the compilation will be funneled directly to BUY
FOOD WITH PLASTIC. An organization built entirely on voluntary contributions, with
a core team working hard to coordinate events worldwide that unite people and
provide solutions to urgent local problems, such as environmental pollution, hunger,
lack of education and poverty.

Minimal City Vol.2

While We Can

While We Can.wav

Out on Neotantra
https://neotantra.bandcamp.com/album/coherent-scattering

Polystyrene

Phantasia Telephonics / The Violet Light

Phantasia Telephonics

tear up the city
lets go to the club
room full of strangers 
i can’t get enough

okay to look
but never too much
the floor is for movement 
we’re living for what

the moment is right

silly to think
that anyone cares
a couple of drinks
you’re everyone’s friend

silly to say 
that anyone knows 
movement is movement 
no one’s a pro

silly to live
but never to show
make up your mind
and let yourself go

give me your movement 
give me your touch
no need for words
just give me a rush

a rush.

A Rush [Demo]

Out Of Mind

RINA PAVAR - The Things We Hide

song written, performed, produced and mixed by RINA PAVAR, mastering by Frithjof Rödel

bandcamp:
https://rinapavar.bandcamp.com/
soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/rinapavar
youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@rinapavar

RINA PAVAR - The Things We Hide

if only now that I could still believe (in life)
the way I used to dream just like I did before I realised
it's only how that I can see the end (deny)
if only to pretend so I can make it through these harder times

Simple Life 83

Nikita Von Tiraspol: @nikitavontiraspol
Noorden: @noorden
Bandcamp: https://noorden.bandcamp.com/album/iki-pasimatymo
Label Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noorden.rec/

"A longtime contributor of the label, ex-Cologne based / freshly Lithuania-relocated producer Nikita von Tiraspol returns to Noorden with his new cassette album, »Iki Pasimatymo!«, which is his way to say ›goodbye‹ to the city he called home for many years. Following up to his 2019-issued solo tape »Was Lucifer More Beautiful Than Adonis?«, this new effort from the German producer has us embarking on a multi-faceted ride down kaleidoscopic rapids of downtempo, jungle, folk and electronica narratives, all rolled into one luxuriant tableau of variably lit and emotionally versatile fluctuations. Talking Is Nonsense is a poetic sequence of floating pads and shifting octaves – think a haiku of sorts, languidly dressed against a screen of vaporous abstraction and metronomic straightforwardness. Reminiscent of Eduard Artemyev’s haunted organic soundscapes. Out November 3rd via Bandcamp!
Produced by Nikita von Tiraspol
Additional Mixing by Panta Rex
B3 contains a sample from „O Kas?“ courtesy of AVaspo
Mastered by Manes at SALZ Mastering
Artwork by Monika Jagusinskytė
Design by Alex Ketzer
Liner Notes by Baptiste Girou

Bandcamp

*PREMIERE* Nikita Von Tiraspol - Talking Is Nonsense

Second teaser track for the upcoming album "Strange Signals" due in October 2019!

Hyboid – Future Fever [2x12" >>Strange Signals<< Album Teaser #2]

Francesca - Run (feat. Andy Fox)

Lyrics by Francesca Cortese. Produced by Andy Fox.

Digital Album : Francesca - Run https://oscarvoice.bandcamp.com/album/run

https://music.apple.com/se/album/run-ep/1512133859

https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Francesca_Run?id=Bvmxpzpk4s3w2r73af7c3ozlrdi&hl=sv

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Run-Francesca/dp/B0886B78FG/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Francesca+Run&qid=1588939872&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Francesca/dp/B08867W5NB/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Francesca+Run&qid=1588939893&sr=8-1

© 2020 Francesca Cortese                      
℗ 2020 Francesca for Sunlover Records

Francesca : https://www.facebook.com/francesca.cortese.5

https://oscarvoice.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/oscardreampop

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWf7x1cwiyK3QmxftxRO-A

Andy Fox : https://www.facebook.com/faxthefox

https://faxthefox.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/faxthefox

A Rush [Demo]

ARMOIRE

Related tracks