For nearly a decade, Wild Up has approached the music of Julius Eastman as something volatile, alive and worthy of far more than archival preservation. In its efforts to reframe the late composer as one of the most radical and emotionally overwhelming figures in American experimental music, Wild Up’s ongoing Eastman series is already the recipient of multiple Grammy nominations and widespread critical acclaim. Now, the Los Angeles-based ensemble takes on one of Eastman’s most incendiary works with Julius Eastman Vol. 5: Gay Guerrilla, available June 19 via New Amsterdam.
Premiering in 1980, Gay Guerrila envisioned queer liberation as nothing less than revolutionary. More than four decades later, the piece still feels startlingly urgent, and Wild Up’s interpretation refuses to soften its edges. The title of “No. 7, C#mb7” was taken from Eastman’s shorthand scrawl on the manuscript, indicating that the harmony should continue. The song itself captures Wild Up at its most relentless.
“At some point in the recording process, producer Lewis Pesacov looked at me and said that Gay Guerrilla is our first classical Eastman record—and it was right after the second full take of this piece,” says Christopher Rountree, the conductor who founded Wild Up 16 years ago.
That take also happened to be the one that made the album. “We played a bit faster, a bit lighter in the quiet spots, had a few more daggers in the raucous moments,” says Rountree. “We found pulsations and drama like Verdi, Philip Glass or Michael Nyman through the only moment in the piece when the entire band plays straight eighth notes together. Horns part the sky, a giant serpent moves the water … It’s one of my favorite moments to perform.”
We’re proud to premiere Wild Up’s “No. 7, C#mb7.”
—Hobart Rowland
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