The latest release from This Way to the EGRESS.
Available for purchase on iTunes, Bandcamp and physical cd's available at www.thiswaytotheegress.com

Purchase on Bandcamp

Retrospectiva!

This Way to the Egress

soundcloud suicide

Mixtape #074

Mohajira improv

“I wish to join ideas with ideas.” - Arnold Schoenberg

Arrangement and Realization: Aaron Wyanski
Mixing and Mastering: Aaron Wyanski
Cover Design: Aaron Wyanski
Photo: "Ceci n'est pas Schoenberg" by Johannes Kreidler
Special Thank You: Don DiNicola

©2023 Speculative Records

1. Leicht, zart

The third full length album released by This Way to the EGRESS.
Great Balancing Act recorded and produced at 366 Visions Factory by Roger Greenawalt.

To be released May 19th 2015

Tarantella

What Do You Want

Earworm

So It Goes

Let's Not Pretend

Composition for 4 musicians and conductor
Instrumentation: Bandoneon, Electric Guitar, Fender Rhodes, Drums
Duration: 50 minutes
Khartes by Laura Andel ©2013

NYFA Composition Fellow 2013

Khartes in the 30th Anniversary of NYFA’s Artists’ Fellowship Program (New York Foundation for the Arts)
http://www.innova.mu/albums/nyfa-composer-fellows/nyfa-collection-volume-two

Khartes 3 (excerpt)

The “Great Man” theory was a view of history popular in the 19th Century that posited that society was advanced by a succession of “great men,” who influenced history through the centuries. It may come as no surprise that the majority of these men (besides notable exceptions such as Jesus or Mohammed) were white. In recent decades such views of history have been criticized, and the contributions of women and people of color have been studied in greater detail.
However, even today, there is perhaps no better field of study to see the Great Man theory at work than in the Classical canon. The music of long-deceased white male Europeans reigns supreme in the concert and recital halls, and these men are credited with all of the stylistic progressions of Western art music. To put it bluntly, the performance and study of the canon is one of dead white man music, and that fact often feels like a barrier for female composers and those of color that must be overcome.

Dead White Man Music serves as a personal reflection on this issue, and my own place in Classical music as a young black composer. This concerto for harpsichord draws on inspiration and influences across the centuries: from Bach and Dowland to Julius Eastman and Nina Simone, and from the Baroque to Post-Minimalism and Rock. Through the work I ask: what music am I called to write and who should be my models?

Dead White Man Music was commissioned by Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, through the generous support of over sixty donors through a crowdfunding campaign. The concerto was written for harpsichordist Daniel Walden.

Dead White Man Music, II. Flow (My Tears)

Money, Jeans, Sex & Guns

Shuffle Song

Indigestion

Skin & Bone

Lights Out

Shower Song

Gravedigger

End Is Nigh

I Love The Stars-The Orion Experience

The Queen Of White Lies-The Orion Experience

The Cult Of Dionysus-The Orion Experience

Obsessed With You-The Orion Experience

This Way to the EGRESS cascades onto the stage in a breathtaking explosion of sound and color that’s equal parts unruly vaudeville, ebullient world beat band and three ring circus. The six-person troupe plays a swooning, crooning, swinging amalgamation of styles that catapults the audience through time and space with unexpected shifts of styles, costumes and time signatures. Confetti snowstorms, tuba farts, Balinese chanting, fire wielding evangelists,  and puppets sweep across the stage creating a jubilant, anything goes atmosphere, anchored by the band’s superlative songwriting skills and sterling musicianship. Accordion, violin and tuba aren’t instruments you usually find fronting a rock band, but This Way to the EGRESS uses them to give the music unexpected textures, while retaining a propulsive beat and generating enough energy to light up a small city.

“We always have a hard time figuring out what genre we fit into,” says Taylor Galassi, the accordion wielding bon vivant who founded EGRESS, with the help of his partner, piano plunker, fiddler and leading lady Sarah Shown. “We’re surfing on a hard-hitting wave of many colors. Gypsy, punk, ska, ragtime, Klezmer, blues and Balkan beats all wrapped up into one crazy foot stomping good time. We let the music take us where it will, regardless of genres and geography.”


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