Over the weekend I began piecing together a new mix combining old Beat Generation poetry readings with music (still work in progress but hope to share the results soon). I began thinking of what works we had covered on Folk Radio that featured poetry…a 2016 release immediately sprang to mind, one which featured readings by San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman and readings in Farsi by Mahnaz Badihian – Rumi: Like This! In her review, Nicky Crewe noted by way of of introduction:
Since the days of the Beat Poets in the fifties there has been a move towards combining poetry and music, from jazz to post-punk, via the acoustic singer songwriters with their deep and revealing lyrics. Think Allen Ginsberg, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith and John Cooper Clarke, to name a few. Their approach has made recordings of recited poetry far more widely acceptable.
There certainly seems to be more room for works like this, the combination of poetry and music can be a powerful and rewarding listening experience. As if perfectly timed, I then heard this most beautiful combination of just that very thing today via a new project from Field Works curator Stuart Hyatt.
Last May, Stuart’s Ultrasonic album featured artists such as Kelly Moran, Mary Lattimore and Sarah Davachi. For his new album ‘Cedars‘, to be released via NYC’s Temporary Residence, he combines Arabic-language poetry to music along with a wonderful list of collaborators. This first listen, promises yet another unique and mesmerising gem. Listen to opening track La’āli’
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-colour Risograph comic book; and longtime Field Works collaborators PRINTtEXT design the packaging.
FIELD WORKS
Cedars
March 5, 2021 | Temporary Residence Ltd.
Pre-Order: https://fieldworks.bandcamp.com/album/cedars
TRACK LISTING
1. La’āli’
2. Thāk-al-yawm
3. Badron wa Qina‛
4. ’Arāha
5. In‛ikās
6. ’Aylūl
7. Ar-raḥīl
8. Ḥalaqah ’Azaliyyah
9. The sharp smell of cedar
10. Before we’re born
11. The scars of recent history
12. In the gloaming
13. Drowning in a sky of cotton
14. Each year
15. In the floodplain
16. The pasture