Episode 112 — May 13, 2021
Adam Holmes: “All American” for percussion
Performed by Adam Holmes

On the Fourth of July in 2016, percussionist and composer Adam Holmes set up a camera in Prospect Park and recorded a long, still video. He remembers it as a pleasant day, but when he watches the footage now, it feels like a relic from another time. He finds a retrospective darkness in this footage, which was taken just months before the 2016 elections began and reveals how in that moment, it felt as if nothing bad could ever happen. In his House Music series video, the Fourth of July footage projects over his body as he plays his piece, All-American, which was inspired by that day.

This video marks Holmes’s first collaboration with Metropolis Ensemble. His experience with the group has mostly come through a few performances at their New York venue, One Rivington, though he remembers meeting Metropolis Artistic Director Andrew Cyr while studying at New York University. Years later, this House Music collaboration came about through a recommendation from Holmes’s fiancé, the composer Cassie Wieland, who recently curated a playlist for Metropolis.

To write All-American, Holmes watched the Fourth of July footage back and began to sketch music on the piano. He found that this live score translated well to the mbira, which is a handheld percussion instrument from Zimbabwe that’s played with the thumbs. All-American originally appeared on Holmes’s 2019 album, Compartments, which presented pieces that could be played on small, transportable instruments, like the mbira. In addition to the mbira, All-American features electronics that make the melodies exponentially grow. He recorded this House Music series rendition of All-American at King Killer Studios in Brooklyn.

Notes by Vanessa Ague

 
House Music: Bite-sized concerts recorded at homes around the world

In 2020-21, we created a weekly video series featuring short-form concerts of newly-commissioned works, supporting 208 artists around the world during the pandemic.