Wrekmeister Harmonies will return with their most sonically varied album to date, Light Falls. On Light Falls, the core of Wrekmeister, JR Robinson (vocals, guitar) and Esther Shaw (keyboards, piano, violin, vocals), are joined by Godspeed You! Black Emperor musicians Thierry Amar on bass and contrabass; Sophie Trudeau on piano, violin and vocals; and Timothy Herzog on drums. Chicago musicians Ryley Walker and Cooper Crain (Cave, Bitchin Bajas) make guest appearances on the album as well.
The title of the album originates from the text of If This Is A Man, Primo Levi’s meditation on the year the author spent as an inmate at Auschwitz. The Italian Jewish chemist and anti-fascist resistance fighter suggested in this seminal work that inhumanity comes about when things change slowly and people begin accepting things that they would normally find reprehensible. Robinson adds: “I wanted to sonically convey the idea of slow, creeping change. When I came up with the title I was thinking of how when daylight turns to night time it’s a very gradual process. You are lulled into watching this slow, peaceful sunset but then all of a sudden you look up and it’s dark.”
Light Falls will be released on 16th September via Thrill Jockey. The album artwork was designed by legendary outsider artist Nick Blinko (Rudimentary Peni).
Wrekmeister Harmonies came into chaotic life in 2006 with the modus operandi of performing and recording long pieces in museums, mausoleums and other impressive public spaces. Over three inimitable albums, released at a feverish pace (You’ve Always Meant So Much to Me, 2013; Then It All Came Down, 2014; Night of Your Ascension, 2015), JR has proved himself to be a master collaborator – curating and orchestrating the talents of such varied underground luminaries such as Jef Whitehead of Leviathan; Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten; David Yow of The Jesus Lizard; Chip King and Lee Buford of The Body; Marissa Nadler; Sanford Parker of Minsk; the free-improv cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm; Chris Brokaw of Codeine; and jazz composer Ken Vandermark.
- Light Falls I – The Mantra
- Light Falls II – The Light Burns Us All
- Light Falls III – Light Sick
- The Gathering
- Where Have You Been My Lovely Son?
- Some Were Save Some Drowned
- My Lovely Son Reprise
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