Collaborations

Belgian-based illustrator Tom De Geeter interviewed close to two hundred artists and asked just these two questions: who do you want to honor and why? De Geeter’s vivid, bold yet delicate line drawings accompany the answers in style.

In this first volume of Accolades, a wide range of musicians, composers, and songwriters praise and present their treasured gems. Contributors from Steve Albini to “Weird Al” Yankovic, from Julien Baker to Margo Price, present accolades to cherished colleagues, to amazing actors and authors, to admired activists and athletes, to precious poets and esteemed engineers.

The mystifying 9th album in the Field Works series, Cedars combines cosmic Americana with Western ambient and Middle Eastern influences. Delicate layers of pedal steel, banjo, oud, and hurdy-gurdy float atop looping guitar drones to create a soothing, atmospheric chamber where folk and electronic music coalesce. Set to Arabic and English poetry, the song cycle examines some of Earth’s most iconic and ancient forests, revealing our complicated relationship with the natural world. For this special dual-language release, Field Works producer Stuart Hyatt has assembled a supergroup of musicians, poets, and artists. The album is narrated by Youmna Saba and H.C. McEntire. Instrumentalists include Marisa Anderson, Fadi Tabbal, Dena El Saffar, Danny Paul Grody, Bob Hoffnar, Tomás Lozano, Nathan Bowles, Alex Roldan, Youmna Saba, and Stuart Hyatt. Renowned illustrator María Medem brings poems by Todd Fleming Davis and Youmna Saba to life in the accompanying full-color Risograph comic book; and longtime Field Works collaborators PRINTtEXT design the packaging.

More than 1,200 visitors thronged the Nasher Museum’s new Sculpture Garden on Saturday, Sept. 28, to experience Composition 21 by Brooklyn-based, Israeli-born artist Naama Tsabar. She created an aurally and visually immersive performance featuring 21 local musicians who identify as women and/or gender nonconforming.

Divided into three bands, the individual musicians stood atop their amplifiers, each band playing a separate song. All songs shared the same four chords, musical scale and beats per minute. At one point all three bands played simultaneously and the result was a dense but harmonious musical field. As the songs seeped into one another, the musicians formed a sculptural composition that complements both the sonic arrangement and the outdoor space.

Rough Trade 40th Anniversary; London - Islington Assembly Hall, 11/3/2016