Rivers are our Brothers
“you could sell it as a secret Laurie Anderson/Arthur Russell collaboration ... and Majel sounds like an angel.”
description
The Rivers are our Brothers is an electronic song cycle on ecological responsibility, told from the point of view of the land. Based on a letter from Chief Seattle that urges us to think of the earth as kin, the songs take a first-person view of nature: rocks sing about their mothers, and snowflakes tell about their hearts of sand.
"The goal of this music is to give nature a voice" says composer-performer Majel Connery, “but this isn’t music for a cute nature documentary. I want to stop people in their tracks and show them the natural world like they’ve never seen it: technicolor and alive.”
Rivers debuted in 2021 in a barn in the rural Sierra Valley, and has been performed internationally and nationally in arrangements for duo, trio, and for 12-part male choir, Chanticleer, which released its own version of the cycle. Connery considers this recording the definite version of the cycle. “Felix Fan’s electric cello is like cyborg classical. It’s the perfect synthesis between Classical and electronic, between human and otherworldly.”
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Credits:
Recorded September 2023 (Electrical Audio, Chicago, IL)
Music and lyrics by Majel Connery
Performed by Majel Connery (synths, voice) and Felix Fan (electric cello)
Recorded and mixed by Matt Walsh
