Composer Ellen Reid to Release New Album 'Big Majestic;' Listen to the Title Track

Ellen Reid- the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer and sound artist renowned for her works that span opera, sound design, film scoring, avant-pop, and so much more — is set to release Big Majestic, a stunning new album out August 30 via New Amsterdam / Eclipse Projects. It’s a transformative and meditative work that finds Reid exercising her towering compositional command and casting her unique voice into fresh shapes as it traverses the worlds of ambient, jazz, post-rock, and minimalism. 

Accompanying the album’s announcement, Reid shares the album opener and title track “Big Majestic,” a swelling and regal overture for the breaking dawn that features Reid’s monolithic synth performance. Says Reid: “Big Majestic is an invocation — this theme is the heart of the composition. It invites you to sink into the resonance of your surroundings.”

Big Majestic assembles music from Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK, a GPS-enabled work of public art that reimagines urban parks as interactive soundscapes. SOUNDWALK premiered in New York's Central Park, and expanded to urban parkland around the world, including Los Angeles's Griffith Park, London's Regent's Park & Primrose Hill, and Tokyo's Ueno Park. It won acclaim not only for its inventive premise and enveloping execution — The Washington Post praised it as “an intoxicating musical adventure” — but for its newfound utility during the socially-distanced height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, with Big Majestic, Reid proves that these works stand on their own divorced from their site-specific presentations, and arranges them to provide an immersive and cohesive arc. Influenced by the likes of Brian Eno, Nala Sinephro, Kamasi Washington, Air, and Floating Points, Reid is bold and graceful, bringing placid atmospheres into ominous complication with the subtlety of the sun moving across the sky. Vivid and evocative, these works capture the essence of the urban oases that inspired them with a magical realist flair. 

To bring these disparate sonic locales to life, Reid calls upon a cast of luminaries from across the musical spectrum to deliver indelible performances. Kronos Quartet soar above desert vistas on “West Coast Sky Forever,” Shabaka Hutchings launches into kaleidoscopic shakuhachi and tenor saxophone meditations on “Spiritual Sun” and “Primrose Hill,” James McVinnie embarks on an electrifying synth organ epic on “Blue Sky | Mirrored Glass,” and the otherworldly voice of Lisel beckons the listener into the unknown on both renditions of “Pavilion In The Trees.” 

At times mystical and psychedelic or solemn and reverent, Big Majestic is a generous and transportative album. Throughout, Reid revels in the freedom of space and the power of gesture — crafting a marvelous and versatile work that does justice to these beloved and wondrous natural sanctuaries.

About Ellen Reid

Ellen Reid is an American composer and sound artist whose breadth of work spans opera, sound design, film scoring, avant-pop, ensemble, and choral writing. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her opera, p r i s m in 2019. Reid's orchestral work has been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many others.  Reid has composed crackling, lyrical film scores in collaboration with A24, Amazon Studios, and the Duplass Brothers Productions. Reid recently released the album Isomonstrosity, an avant-pop collaboration with artists Johan Lenox and Yuga Cohler that paired the modern production aesthetics of hip-hop with vocal chamber music. In 2016, Reid co-founded Luna Composition Lab with composer Missy Mazzoli, an organization that provides mentorship, education, and resources for young female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers. It is the only initiative of its kind in the United States. Born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1983, Ellen Reid received her BFA from Columbia University and her MA from California Institute of the Arts. Reid serves as the Contemporary Music Chair of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and she is currently the first composer to be in residence with both Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Concert Hall and Concertgebouw Orchestra simultaneously. She continues to live and work in New York City and Los Angeles.

Photo Credit: Erin Baiano

To post a comment, you must register and login.