https://open.spotify.com/album/0ETHQt0N5olBIUIcI9Eopz
Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam Records co-release The Blue Hour, a song cycle written collaboratively by Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. Performed by vocalist Shara Nova and Boston–based chamber orchestra A Far Cry, on text by Carolyn Forché.
New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records release The Blue Hour, a song cycle written collaboratively by the female composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider; this unique joint vision among a female collective is available October 14, 2022. The cycle was commissioned by, and is performed with, the Boston–based chamber orchestra A Far Cry. (Nova also is featured as vocal soloist.) Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. Exploring memories of childhood, of war, of love, and of loss, The Blue Hour amplifies the beauty, pain, and fragility of human life from a collective female perspective.
1.
Prologue 01:08
2.
Opening 01:06
3.
A black map 02:49
4.
A memory 01:16
5.
A syllable 00:46
6.
Angelica-balefire 02:09
7.
Canticle 01:27
8.
Dark 01:04
9.
Early summer's green plums 02:17
10.
Even if by forgetting 00:41
11.
Firmament 03:11
12.
1st Refrain 00:40
13.
Ghost swift 01:29
14.
He told her how 01:53
15.
Her hair 02:14
16.
I am alone 05:07
17.
In the toy store 02:41
18.
It appears to be an elegy 01:14
19.
J'ai rêvé 01:06
20.
Keeping a record 00:22
21.
Library lilac 02:25
22.
My dear 01:50
23.
Nevertheless 02:07
24.
Oil soap 01:01
25.
Older than clocks 01:09
26.
Poppy seed 02:41
27.
2nd Refrain 01:10
28.
She heard no one's footsteps 02:11
29.
Tendril 00:45
30.
The ganglia 01:15
31.
The hole 03:18
32.
The name 02:56
33.
The silence 02:22
34.
Twirling 00:59
35.
Vesture 01:54
36.
We are as paper 02:32
37.
Yet the women 01:43
38.
You are the ghost 02:52
39.
Zero 00:38
40.
3rd Refrain 04:22
"These five gifted composers speak to a circle of stories – shared influences, revelatory experiences- all riffing off of and taking inspiration from one another, as they respond collectively to a flood of memories from a woman traveling the space between life and death as laid out in the poem." — New Sounds Top Ten Albums of 2022
"You don’t need to know the madly ambitious conceit of this song cycle to revel in its sheer beauty and poignancy." The Nation Top Ten Albums of 2022
"Collectively written works are rarely memorable, but the balance of similarity and otherness among the five composers is so sure as to make “The Blue Hour” seem like the work of a unified compositional voice."--The Boston Globe Top Ten of 2022
"Few multi-composer collaborations are memorable. However, The Blue Hour, an engrossing cycle of songs by Caroline Shaw, Angelica Negrón, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Rachel Grimes and Shara Nova...is unforgettable." NPR Top Ten Albums of 2022
"This architecture lends to The Blue Hour’s compulsive relistenability, new lines emerging as significant with each turn. I want to revisit this album like I revisit certain books every few years or so, using it as a sort of psychological yardstick or Rorschach test to see what stands out. It’s both a means and manifestation of contemplation." -- Van Magazine
"Stunning…The 75-minute song cycle flows seamlessly, thanks to a lush, integrated composing style adhered to by Caroline Shaw, Angélica Negrón, Rachel Grimes, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Shara Nova, who sings the entire cycle. The music is gorgeously realized by A Far Cry, the Boston-based chamber orchestra." — NPR
"['The Blue Hour' is] a semi-operatic song-cycle written collaboratively by a veritable who’s who of new female composers..."
"A subtle reflection of dehumanisation, examined through alphabetically arranged phrases woven into 40 movements, each created by individual composers—Rachel Grimes, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, and Caroline Shaw." -- BBC Magazine
