William Brittelle’s mini-album is a shock to the system – a relentless flood of synths, strings and saxophone, with warped vocals complemented by an artificial choir, and reprieves of lush pads and soft melodic fragments.
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New Amsterdam Records
William Brittelle’s movements are fleeting and brief, like constantly shifting perspectives in dreams that dissolve into one another with a logic all their own.
The multi-part suite combines bits of freeform noise, mutated transmissions, seething strings, subliminal guitar, and ghostly singing into a lucid nightmare of oddly soothing sonic insanity.
“Wye Oak’s Shriek is celebrating its 10th anniversary in a couple months, and to mark the occasion the duo has announced Shriek: Variations, a collection of five tracks from the album that were reimagined by composer William Brittelle.”
New Amsterdam releases composer William Brittelle’s new studio album, Alive in the Electric Snow Dream, on February 23, 2024 featuring Holland Andrews, Jenn Wasner, Eliza Bagg, and Metropolis Ensemble conducted by Andrew Cyr.
“William Brittelle. I can’t say enough good things about that guy. He’s such a special person. He has such a strange mind and wild ear for aesthetic choices.”
“William Brittelle – Spiritual America – Wye Oak, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Metropolis Ensemble/Andrew Cyr (New Amsterdam/Nonesuch; due May 3, 2019)”
[caption id=“attachment_1164” align=“alignright” width=“300”] Caroline Shaw[/caption]
Caroline Shaw, composer and member of the Metropolis community, is the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music recipient for her a cappella composition “Partita for 8 Voices.” She also has the distinction of being the youngest to ever receive the music Pulitzer. Her album, released on New Amsterdam Records in October 2012, features the vocal group Roomful of Teeth and was inspired by “Wall Drawing 305” by the American minimalist artist Sol LeWitt.
The award citation praised “Partita” as “a highly polished and inventive a cappella work uniquely embracing speech, whispers, sighs, murmurs, wordless melodies and novel vocal effects.” Since the announcement on April 15, Caroline has received high praise from the press, including feature stories in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and NPR interviews.
Caroline gave insight to her writing process: “Partita is a simple piece, born of a love of surface and structure, of the human voice, of dancing and tired ligaments, of music, and of our basic desire to draw a line from one point to another.” She told NPR, “sometimes it comes from having a sound in your head that you really want to hear, that you’ve never heard before, and struggling to make that sound happen in any way you can.”
Metropolis Ensemble commissioned Caroline in the Music for Voice concert in 2012 and is a 2012-13 participating composer in our Youth Works education program at The Teak Fellowship in New York City.
Congrats to Caroline! Listen to the album now on iTunes.