GRAMMY Awards 2025
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For Your Consideration
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Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals
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GRAMMY Awards 2025 / / / For Your Consideration / / / Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals / / /
“Wye Oak are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their fourth album, Shriek, with a new collection of five of its songs, reimagined by composer William Brittelle.”
(Brooklyn Vegan)
About the Album
Released March 22, 2024 on Merge Records
Seminal indie rock duo Wye Oak, Paul Wiancko (strings), and Metropolis Ensemble are releasing a reimagined version of the band's 2014 record, Shriek, to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. The album features a series of adventurous orchestral arrangements composed by Grammy-winning producer William Brittelle and performed by Wye Oak, Paul Wiancko, and Metropolis artists.
This album continues the fruitful collaboration between Brittelle, Wye Oak, Paul Wiancko, and Metropolis Ensemble, building on the 2019 release of Spiritual America on Nonesuch/New Amsterdam, and our concert collaboration at Hollywood Bowl in 2018.
Featuring new arrangements created by William Brittelle for:
Before
Shriek
The Tower
Sick Talk
Logic of Color
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“It’s like looking at the songs in a funhouse mirror. The songs on Shriek can be stripped down or embellished—this is maximal embellishment. William took the album and blew it to smithereens, looking at it in a weird, prismatic way.”
Andy Stack, Wye Oak
Wye Oak has collaborated with Metropolis Ensemble over the past few years, including William Brittelle’s nascent orchestral arrangements from Shriek and Brittelle’s song cycle, Spiritual America, performed at Symphony Space and Hollywood Bowl in 2018.
Project In-Depth
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1 Before (3:25)
2 Shriek (2:46)
3 The Tower (3:17)
4 Glory (3:41)
5 Sick Talk (4:19)
6 Schools of Eyes (3:39)
7 Despicable Animal (4:06)
8 Paradise (4:53)
9 I Know the Law (4:26)
10 Logic of Color (4:15)
11 Before (Variation) (4:50)
12 Shriek (Variation) (4:22)
13 Sick Talk (Variation) (3:44)
14 The Tower (Variation) (3:00)
15 Logic of Color (Variation) (6:17)
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Metropolis Ensemble
Andrew Cyr, artistic director
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher - Flute
Brad Balliett - Bassoon
Dave Adewumi - Trumpet
Laura Weiner - French horn
Burt Mason - trombone
Paul Wiancko - Violin, Viola, Cello
Lizzie Burns - Double Bass
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Produced by Wye Oak and Nicolas Vernhes
Produced by Paul Wiancko at Big Purple Box
Music by Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack
Words by Jenn Wasner
Engineered and Mixed at Rare Book Room in Brooklyn, NY, by Nicolas Vernhes
Assistant Engineer: Gabe Wax
Additional Recording by Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack in Portland, OR; Baltimore, MD; and Phoenicia, NY
Mastered by Joe Lambert
Art and layout by Ashley North Compton
“Shriek” contains sounds from “Dawn chorus with tūī in the foreground” altered by delay processing. Source: New Zealand Department of Conservation (doc.govt.nz). Used under CC BY 3.0 NZ.
Wye Oak
Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack have been playing music together and apart in Baltimore for most of their lives. On stage, they perform with raw energy and sophistication, creating a surprising amount of noise for two people. Their music can be classified as 21st-century folk music, imbued with dense shoegaze guitars, nearly melodic rhythms, and impeccable splashes of electronic color. More »
William Brittelle
William Brittelle is a Brooklyn-based composer, poet, and Grammy-winning producer. Along with Sarah Kirkland Snider and Judd Greenstein he acts as co-artistic director of New Amsterdam Records. He works regularly with Metropolis Ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, and 37dOed and has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including the Baltimore Symphony, Bryce Dessner, Oneohtrix Point Never, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), the Seattle Symphony, Kanye West, and the LA Phil. His most recent project is the 2019 Nonesuch/New Amsterdam release "Spiritual America" featuring Metropolis alongside the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Wye Oak. Upcoming and recent production projects include albums by violinst/composer Michi Wiancko, keyboardist/composer Erika Dohi, and the Spektral Quartet/Julia Holter performing work by Alex Temple. More »
Paul Wiancko
Paul Wiancko has led an exceptionally multifaceted musical life as a composer and cellist. As a performer, he has collaborated with Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, Nico Muhly, and members of the Guarneri, Takács, JACK, Parker, Orion, and Juilliard quartets. Chosen as one of Kronos Quartet’s “50 for the Future”, Paul’s own music has been described as “dazzling”, “compelling” (Star Tribune) and “vital pieces that avoid the predictable” (Allan Kozinn). His 25-minute quartet LIFT is featured on the Aizuri Quartet’s Grammy-nominated album Blueprinting, one of NPR’s top 10 classical albums of 2018. More »
