Ellen Reid Taps Shabaka Hutchings on 'Spiritual Sun'

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid — best known for her works that span opera, sound design, film scoring, avant-pop, and more — shares "Spiritual Sun," the latest preview from Big Majestic (out August 30 via New Amsterdam / Eclipse Projects). The new album assembles work from Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK, the acclaimed public art project that reimagines urban parks as interactive soundscapes that move through ambient, jazz, post-rock, and minimalism.

Accompanying Reid on "Spiritual Sun" is the musician and composer Shabaka Hutchings, "arguably the brightest star of London’s surging jazz scene" (Pitchfork) known not only for his own records but for collaborations with Lianne La Havas, Floating Points, Carlos Niño, Esperanza Spalding, Saul Williams and so many more

Says Reid of "Spiritual Sun": "Creating Spiritual Sun was a joyous in-studio collaboration with Shabaka Hutchings. He so artfully inhabited the sonic structure I created, building multi-voiced shakuhachi counterpoint, line by line, in a series of dazzling first takes. I was inspired to find ways to hold his performance in a neon embrace, expanding the synth lines to surround his flutes.”

Influenced by the likes of Brian Eno, Nala Sinephro, Kamasi Washington, and Air, Big Majestic — which features additional contributions from Kronos Quartet, James McVinnie, Lisel, and Nadia Sirota — is vivid and evocative. Even divorced from the SOUNDWALK installations, these works capture the essence of the urban oases that inspired them — iconic spaces including New York’s Central Park, Los Angeles’s Griffith Park, London’s Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill, and Tokyo’s Ueno Park — with a magical realist flair.

TRACKLIST

Big Majestic
Spiritual Sun (feat. Shabaka Hutchings)
Interlude
Pavilion in the Trees (feat. Lisel)
Strawberry Hill Ascent (feat. Kronos Quartet)
Sunrise in Central Park
Alone On Mulholland
West Coast Sky Forever (feat. Kronos Quartet)
Primrose Hill (feat. Shabaka Hutchings)
Strawberry Hill Descent (feat. Nadia Sirota and Gabriel Cabezas)
Sunset in Ueno Park
Blue Sky | Mirrored Glass (feat. James McVinnie)
Pavilion in the Trees Pt. 2 (feat. Lisel)
Mt. Lee + Step Lightly Now (feat. Riley Mulherkar)

Photo credit: Erin Baiano

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