Released May 11, 2018
Hecuba is a lush and experimental rock-leaning album based on Euripides’ play of the same name. Written sometime around 424 BCE in Athens, Hecuba displays the the disgraced Queen of Troy at her lowest fortune. Yoked into slavery, forced to watch her many children being killed, Hecuba is finally driven to a spectacularly savage revenge, blinding her betrayer and killing his children. It is a play of misplaced blame and barbarity, and is considered by some as Euripides' best work, by others as one of his most problematic. 

Oracle’s portrait of Hecuba isolates her most enduring moments: her passionate pleas for mercy from her captors, her assertion that she will cling to her daughter “like ivy to the oak" in Bolero or the hallucinatory image of her body covered in screaming mouths in 100 Tongues. 

Each of the songs on Hecuba were co-created by the composer-performers of Oracle. More than any other project by Oracle, Hecuba was born of the studio. The recording features Jason Treuting of So Percussion on drums and electronic production by Chris Botta. Hecuba began as improvisation and concluded as an experimental and electronic fusion of alternative classical. 

"...blend[s] ideas from across time and land into elegant tunes where serpentine melodies are cradled and cajoled by exquisite arrangements...” 
- Chicago Reader 

Composed and Recorded 
Majel Connery - vocals and keyboards 
Doug Balliett - double bass, electric bass, viola da gamba 
Brad Balliett - bassons 
Elliot Cole - vocals, guitars and keyboards 
Jason Treuting - drums, percussion 

Added for Live Performance 
Chris Botta - live arrangements, synths, guitar, mixing 
Dylan Greene - live arrangements, drums, percussion 

Album Art by Hannah Devereux 
Design by Benjamin Wilkerson Tousley 

Produced by Elliot Cole 
Co-produced by Chris Botta and Alexander Overington 
Mixed and mastered by Chris Botta 
Commissioned and co-produced by Opera Cabal 
Recorded at the Princeton Music Department, the Overington Farm, and Staplechest Audio

Hecuba

Helen

Half band, half book club, OH combines eclectic musical influences with literary breadth, adapting great works of literature through the medium of song. OH has created hip-hoperas, art-rock song cycles, rap cantatas, and other genre-bending works all over America and Europe, collaborating with a variety of ensembles to cultivate a unique sound palette for each project.

Oracle Hysterical is a collective of composer performers: twin brothers Doug Balliett (double bass, viola da gamba) and Brad Balliett (bassoons), Majel Connery (vocals), Elliot Cole (guitars, vocals, harmonium), and Dylan Greene (percussion, drums).