EASTMAN • EVIL NIGGER • ARDITTI STRING QUARTET, FRĄCKIEWICZ, ŁUC VINYL

DUX 7755
• Evil Nigger

“Minimalism has been dominated by straight white men — Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass — and Eastman, a gay black man is a vital addition to their company, even if his take on the style was idiosyncratic and perhaps ahead of its time” wrote the New York Times in 2016. Another leftist fad indulged in by New York snobs? Don’t think so.
Since that was written, Julius Eastman’s musical output, all-but forgotten for a quarter century, has been the focus at the London Contemporary Music Festival, MaerzMusik in Berlin and Krakow’s Sacrum Profanum festival, and has been all over the press. Now, new versions of Eastman’s most famous work (with the revealing title Evil Nigger) have now made their way onto the vinyl album. Its cascade of sounds, usually produced by four grand pianos, has been rendered this time by the renowned Arditti String Quartet (arranged by Tomasz Opałka) and by two Polish accordion masters, Rafał Łuc and Maciej Frąckiewicz (arranged by Piotr Peszat).
Today, Eastman’s timely music resounds as powerfully as the scary/funny titles of his most acclaimed compositions (including the provocative, now lost Nigger Faggot).

DUX 7755Total time: [42:16]

Julius Eastman

Evil Nigger 615478

1. side A: Evil Nigger (Arranged by Tomasz Opałka)

[21:03]

2. side B: Evil Nigger (Arranged by Piotr Peszat)

[21:13]

Performers:
Arditti String Quartet [1]
  Irvine Arditti /violin/
  Ashot Sarkissjan /violin/
  Ralf Ehlers /viola/
  Lucas Fels /cello/
Maciej Frąckiewicz /accordion/ [2]
Rafał Łuc /accordion/ [2]

composers	Eastman, Julius ∎
performers	Arditti String Quartet ∎ , Frąckiewicz, Maciej ∎ , Łuc, Rafał ∎
Releases Year	2021