Thrilled to announce a new album of Arthur Russell works in collaboration with French group Ensemble 0 — Give It to the Sky: Arthur Russell’s Tower of Meaning Expanded — out October 6 via Erased Tapes.
This mammoth project features an extensive interpretation of Arthur Russell’s seminal piece ‘Tower of Meaning’, re-arranged for 12-piece ensemble including strings, horns, woodwinds, vibraphone, piano, percussion, synth, etc.
In addition, there are four previously unreleased Arthur Russell songs woven throughout. These are songs that I came across while doing audio restoration work on Arthur’s archives for the ‘Iowa Dream’ album. And while there are no current plans to release Arthur’s original versions, we have been given permission from estate of Arthur Russell to work with these pieces. What an honour!
Come autumn/winter we’ll be bringing this show to the stage. Check back here for tour dates.
This such a beautiful album. I get the sense that it was a real labour of love to both arrange and perform. The love shines through.
Thanks for tuning in, Tim, and for taking the time to leave a comment here. Indeed this project was and is very much a labour of love. For the arrangements, I must give credit to the brilliant Julien Pontvianne, who also plays tenor sax on this project. He did all the transcribing and arrangement nearly single-handedly.