Marisa Anderson has announced The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, Vol. 1, the first instalment of a planned trilogy, due out May 22nd on Thrill Jockey. A portion of the album’s proceeds will go to Tamizdat, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to supporting global artist mobility and cultural exchange. On their mission, Tamizdat representative Matt Covey says:
“Tamizdat is a nonprofit organization that facilitates, defends. and advocates for global artist mobility and cultural exchange. Started in the 90s by an international group of musicians, Tamizdat’s programs assist the international performing arts community to address barriers to access and fairness within the global live arts ecosystem. Tamizdat was founded on the conviction that cultural diversity is the fuel that drives the engine of positive social change, and it is committed to programs that ensure that international audiences have access to the full breadth of the perspectives that make up the world in which we live.”
The album takes its name — and its provocation — from a chance encounter that led Anderson to the private record collection of the late Harry Smith. From this vast archive of nearly one thousand songs, she assembled a personal selection focused on music from regions the United States has been in conflict with since 1970: Southeast Asia, the USSR, and the Arabic and Islamic world. The result is nine original arrangements, charting a musical course from Afghanistan to Vietnam via Yemen, Cambodia and Turkmenistan — interpretations of Pakistani qawwali, Syrian taqsim, and more, each refracted through Anderson’s singular guitar voice.
The first single, Taqsim for Guitar, draws from a 1955 field recording, “Taqsim for Violin”, from the album “The Syrian Maqams,” recorded by Deben Bhattacharya, whose original notes on the piece state: “This short Taqsim, played by a teacher of the Conservatoire de Damas, is presented on this band as an example of Syrian handling of a Western violin.” Anderson elaborates:
“Deben Bhattacharya was a prolific traveler and field recordist. He migrated from Varanasi to Europe when he was a young man in the early 1940s, first living in London and eventually splitting his time between Paris and Calcutta. In 2018, Sublime Frequencies put out a 4 CD compilation of his field recordings along with a book of photos and text that is highly worth digging into.“
Anderson spent weeks transcribing the piece before building an arrangement that hews as closely as possible to the original, using string bending at key moments to gesture toward the microtonal qualities of the source material. As she explains: “I transcribed this one as best I could over the course of many weeks, and then built an arrangement for guitar that follows the original piece as closely as possible given the limitations and conditions of playing a fretted instrument. I try to allude to the microtonal nature of the source material through string bending in a couple of key moments in the piece. A taqsim is an improvised piece of music preceding a more formal piece. My arrangement is not a true taqsim as it closely follows the recorded piece and thus is not improvised.“
The album’s deeper question, though, is an explicitly political one. “Who are the people we’ve been told in our lifetimes are ‘unamerican?'” Anderson asks. “What have we lost or been denied access to in the fallout from that label?” Anderson’s approach to tradition offers one kind of answer. “My approach to tradition is with the hands that I have and the history that I have,” she notes. “In that way it’s a collaboration — you don’t go into collaboration trying to play like the other person, you go in trying to find out how to play together.”
Anderson is currently touring New Zealand in collaborative sets with drummer Jim White, followed by a solo run through Australia. A lengthy US tour runs throughout May and June, with a UK appearance at End of the Road Festival in September.
The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, Vol. 1 is out May 22nd on Thrill Jockey.
Marisa Anderson tour dates
Feb. 18 – Auckland, NZ – Whammy Bar, co-presented with Audio Foundation *
Feb 19 – Wellington, NZ – Meow, co-presented with Pyramid Club *
Feb. 20 – Blenheim, NZ – Brayshaw Park Chapel, co-presented with Matt Hellriegel *
Feb. 21 – Christchurch, NZ – Port Noise Christchurch *
Feb. 24 – Melbourne, AU – Northcote -Merri Creek Tavern
Feb. 25 – Sydney/Earlwood, AU – The Redhouse
Feb. 26 – Thirroul, AU – Franks Wild Year
Feb. 27 – Murwillumbah, AU – The Citadel
Feb. 28 – Brisbane, AU – Junk Bar
May 21 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studio
May 22 – Seattle, WA – Rabbit Box
May 27 – Minneapolis, MN – The Cedar
May 28 – Madison, WI – Arts + Literature Laboratory
May 29 – Milwaukee, WI – Acme Records
May 30 – Chicago, IL – Constellation
May 31 – Sawyer, MI – Out There In
Jun. 2 – Detroit, MI – Trinosophes
Jun. 4 – State College, PA – Rhoneymeade Fest @ Manny’s
Jun. 5 – Kingston, NY – Tubby’s
Jun. 6 – Keene, NH – Nova Arts
Jun. 7 – Portland, ME – Space
Jun. 8 – Hamden, CT – Space Ballroom (Front Room)
Jun. 9 – New York, NY – Union Pool
Jun. 11 – Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA
Jun. 12 – Washington, DC – Rhizome
Jun. 13 – Durham, NC – Pinhook
Jun. 14 – Asheville, NC – AyurPrana Listening Room
Jun. 18 – Memphis, TN – Crosstown Arts
Jun. 19 – St. Louis, MO – TBA
Jun. 20 – Rock Island, IL – RozzTox
Jun 21 – Iowa City, IA – The James Theatre
Jun. 24 – Salt Lake City, UT – UMOCA
Sep. 3-6 – Dorset, UK – End of the Road Festival
* duo w/ Jim White
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