Tyondai Braxton remix of Philip Glass' 'Rubric' Premieres at Pitchfork; Philip Glass Remix Project Out 10/23

Tyondai Braxton's remix of "Rubric" from esteemed composer Philip Glass' landmark work Glassworks is now streaming at Pitchfork: http://bit.ly/U6lpBW. The remix appears on REWORK_Philip Glass remixed, a two-disc album/2xLP of remixed Philip Glass works due October 23 on Orange Mountain Music/Ernest Jenning Record Co./The Kora Records. The album is now available for pre-order at http://www.philipglassrework.com as well as via the iTunes store. Glass and Braxton are set to perform together at All Tomorrow's Parties' I'll Be Your Mirror in NYC on September 21, for additional info please see http://www.illbeyourmirror.com.

 

In addition to the album, app developer Scott Snibbe Studio (creator of Björk's Biophilia app) has built a REWORK app with interactive visualizations of each of the remix tracks and an exclusive "Glass Machine" that lets people create and remix Philip Glass-like music. The app will be available via the Apple App Store in October.

 

The idea for REWORK came together during a conversation between Philip and his friend and new collaboratorBeck. The pair recruited producer Hector Castillo (David Bowie, Björk, Lou Reed) to help assemble a collection of remixes of Glass' works by a list of critically acclaimed artists including Beck himself, Tyondai Braxton, Amon Tobin, Cornelius, Dan Deacon, Johann Johannsson, Nosaj Thing, Memory Tapes, Silver Alert, Pantha du Prince, My Great Ghost and Peter Broderick.

 

The remix project joins in the celebration of Glass' 75^th birthday season, which features performances and events across the globe encompassing every facet of the composer's decades-long career as a preeminent American composer-opera, chamber music, orchestra music, dance, theatre works and more.

 

Glass' 75^th birthday season began with the inaugural Days and Nights Festival in Carmel Valley, CA-curated by Glass himself-and has featured the first performance of a Glass piece by the New York Philharmonic; the world premiere of Glass' Symphony No. 9 by Bruckner Orchestra Linz in Austria before the symphony's American premiere at Carnegie Hall; and a week of events curated by the composer for the Park Avenue Armory's Tune-In Music Festival. Glass' 75^th birthday season goes on to include the return of his first and most revered operaEinstein on the Beach and concludes with the World Premiere of The Perfect American, a new opera about the death of Walt Disney, in January 2013. In addition to numerous live performances, Glass' 75^th birthday season also sees the publication of the composer's first ever recollection of a life in music.

 

For more than five decades, Glass continues to be at the forefront of contemporary music and art. In the early 1960s, Glass spent two years of intensive study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and while there, earned money by transcribing Ravi Shankar's Indian music into Western notation. By 1974, Glass had a number of innovative projects, creating a large collection of new music for The Philip Glass Ensemble, and for the Mabou Mines Theater Company. This period culminated in Music in Twelve Parts, and the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach for which he collaborated with Robert Wilson. Since Einstein, Glass has expanded his repertoire to include music for opera, dance, theater, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and film. His scores have received Academy Award nominations (Kundun, The Hours, Notes on a Scandal) and a Golden Globe (The Truman Show). Several new works have been unveiled, including Book of Longing, a collaboration with Leonard Cohen (2007, Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity) and Appomattox (2007, San Francisco Opera), an opera about the end of the Civil War.

 

For the past sixteen years, American composer Tyondai Braxton has been actively involved in music composition and performance. Bridging the purview of his interests in solo composition, experimental sound, pop music and large-scale orchestra, his music has received critical acclaim from an extraordinarily diverse expanse of the music world. In late 2002, Braxton co-founded the avant-rock group Battles, in which, until 2010, he performed as guitarist, keyboardist and singer. In addition to his recent collaborations with Philip Glass, Braxton's further commissions have ranged from multimedia art/music installations (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) to compositions for world-renowned ensembles (Kronos Quartet, Bang On A Can, Alarm Will Sound) and contemporary dance (choreographer Alan Good). On October 9, 2012, Braxton will be joined by London Sinfonietta for a performance of his albumCentral Market at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

 

Disc 1

1.     Music in Twelve Parts, Part 1–My Great Ghost

2.     Rubric–Tyondai Braxton

3.     Knee 1–Nosaj Thing

4.     Alight Spiral Snip–Dan Deacon

5.     Warda's Whorehouse Inside Out Version–Amon Tobin

6.     Etoile Polaire: Little Dipper–Silver Alert

7.     Floe '87–Memory Tapes

8.     Opening From Glassworks–Cornelius

 

Disc 2

1.     NYC: 73-78–Beck

2.     Protest–Johann Johannsson

3.     Mad Rush Organ–Pantha du Prince

4.     Island–Peter Broderick