| On a cold day in January, yMusic descended into the dim reaches of Gowanus, Brooklyn with a single purpose: to make a demo of Gabriel Kahane’s “For the Union Dead.” Nadia, Alex and Gabriel were the first to arrive, approximately an hour before the session, and their bell-ringing was received without reply. Luckily, Kahane kept an apartment nearby and the three crossed 4th Ave downtrodden but not defeated. Rob and CJ arrived a half an hour later and quickly found themselves inside the compound. After alerting the others, they strolled down the block to a nearby gas station and purchased Entenmann’s cakes, bananas and water. Soon, the original three plus two were joined by Mike, but Hideaki remained stuck on a stalled train somewhere between Amangansett and Atlantic Ave. The group worried not, about Hideaki, since the studio had not been even remotely set up. The owner/engineer was a bit of a hermit (aside from his random departure during Kahane’s window of arrival) and was not aware of the convention of preparing for a session before the clock starts rolling. It took 1 hour for Hideaki to arrive and 2 hours to begin tracking (delay unrelated to H’s tardiness) but soon they were underway with the song-cycle’s opening track:
1. WATER (music by Gabriel Kahane, words by Robert Lowell, performed by Kahane and yMusic)
|
|
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. |
Hours later, the woodwinds took a potassium break as the others set up for the session’s penultimate song. A trusty Silvertone was brandished and paired with a vintage Deluxe Reverb to great self-acclaim. Days before, the New Yorker’s Alex Ross had written: in a setting of “The Drinker” Kahane hit a vein of desolate beauty, dwelling obsessively on the phrase “foundering down.” 2. THE DRINKER (music by Gabriel Kahane, words by Robert Lowell, performed by Kahane and yMusic)
|
|
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. |
Contact: info@ymusicensemble.com
