June 14, 2019
Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony’s disc of John Luther Adams’ Become Desert has now been released.
Become Desert was co-commissioned by the Seattle Symphony, and is the sequel to Adams’ Pulitzer Prize winning Become Ocean, released by the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot in 2013. The recording also won a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Classical Competition.
Adams said of the piece: “You find yourself listening in ways you never have before. The scale of your perception has changed… The space around you seems larger than you had realized”. Become Desert is written for multiple orchestral performers, plus a chorus (a first for Adams’ music), and Adams divides them into five separate ensembles (all moving at different tempos) placed around balconies in a performance hall. With this CD release comes a 5.1 surround sound DVD with a slideshow of desert images, all shot by Adams himself: “But when I take snapshots, I rarely take selfies. I take landscapes with nobody in them, because that’s where I want to be. And that’s where I want you to be. I’m not interested in painting a picture, or telling you a story in music. I want to invite you into something that’s larger than we are, and allow you to find your own way.”
You can listen to a clip of the album here. For more information, see the Seattle Symphony website.
