The Sea [Letters to Distant Cities]

Letters to Distant Cities

Release date: March 29, 2011
Photos by Murat Eyuboglu
Poetry by Mustafa Ziyalan

Available at New Amsterdam | iTunes | Amazon

Letters to Distant Cities is a collaborative work that brings together poetry,music, photography and design. The origin of the project lies with the poetry of Mustafa Ziyalan, which explores themes of urban solitude in all of its melancholy and enchanted dimensions. The female persona of the poems traverses topographies that are dream-like and all-too-real. Shara Worden’s reading of the text makes the experiences captured in these poems shimmer with a fantastical glow. Instrumental music composed and performed by Rob Moose weaves through the poems and subtly makes manifest a range of moods latent in the poems and in the grain of Worden’s voice. The album is bookended by two original songs: My Brightest Diamond’s myth-like The Sea opens the album and Clare and the Reasons’ ethereally wistful Invisible acts as its bittersweet conclusion.

In addition to the recording, a set of 24 cards featuring photographs along with the poems are included in the package. Captured by photographer Murat Eyuboglu and featuring Jamie Ansley, the images provide another level of reflection on the experiences of the poetic persona. The design of Adam Frint brings together the music, poetry, recitation, and photography into a gorgeous and thoughtfully-produced package.

Letters To Distant Cities

New Amsterdam Records welcomes singer-songwriters Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond) and Clare Muldaur Manchon (of Clare and the Reasons), along with indie-classical multi-instrumentalist/composer Rob Moose, as collaborators in the enchanted and melancholy Letters to Distant Cities, a multi-media project curated and produced by photographer and videographer Murat Eyuboglu, exploring urban solitude through the poetry of Turkish-American poet, Mustafa Ziyalan.

The album will be re-created in a multi-media release event featuring live performances by Worden, Moose, and Manchon, as well as readings of the poetry in the original Turkish by Ziyalan with English readings of the translations by Worden, and a video for two of the album’s songs (The Sea and Invisible), produced by Eyuboglu and edited by David Sarno (videos available online only). To round out the evening, Worden and Manchon will perform a few extra tunes of their own, not included on the album.

In addition to the CD, the album package includes a set of 24 pristine keepsake cards, comprising a photographic illustration for each of Zilayan’s poems collected on the recording. The images were captured by project visionary Murat Eyuboglu with model Jamie Ansley. Designer Adam Frint brings musical, poetic, and photographic elements together, creating a physical connection to the album’s sense of memorabilia.

Monday, March 21
7–9 PM
The powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street (corner of Water & Main St)
DUMBO, Brooklyn
$10 at the door
For more information, please call (718) 666-3049
rsvp: rsvp@powerHouseArena.com

WQXR

An audio recording of the March 16th concert at Merkin Concert Hall is archived on the WQXR website. Listen here!  The event was hosted by John Schaefer of WNYC’s Soundcheck and will be re-broadcast at a later date on Schaefer’s program New Sounds Live.  Hooray for public radio!!!

Ecstatic Music Festival

On Wednesday, March 16th, Shara will be performing a two-fold concert as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall (129 west 67th Street) in New York City.  The first half of the evening will comprise new works composed by Sarah Kirkland Snider, as well as selections from her song-cycle entitled, Penelope.  The second half of the concert will feature the World Premiere of 3 instrumental works that the Kaufman Center commissioned Shara to compose especially for this festival.  In addition to these commissioned works, audience members will hear the 10 songs to be embodied on the next album from Shara & Co.  All of these works will feature Shara singing with accompaniment from yMusic.

asthmatic kitty ain’t no man

Dear  trying-to-be-righteous-fan,

Someone wrote to me recently asking how they could give money to me for an album they had downloaded from a friend, but they didn’t want to give money to “the man”.  They wanted to give the money directly to me.  I certainly appreciated the letter and the thought.  In the words of my friend Annie Clark, “Mama gotta pay the mortgage.”  And that’s true.  I’m trying to have a home and a family and do what I love, just like most people.  It’s a hussle, trying to make ends meat for everyone these days, artists and architects alike.  That ain’t news.  But what is frustrating to me today, is this idea of record labels being bad guys, particularly that my record label, Asthmatic Kitty would get lumped in with the rest.  Someone on the radio was going on and on about this the other day as well, and it made my blood boil.  Seriously people.  That is so old skool.  Well, what do I know?   I was never on a major.  But I did put three albums out on my own before My Brightest Diamond and it was crazy difficult.  I’m still paying off those loans.   That is too much information, but I’m trying to make a point.   I did it on my own and it’s really really really really hard to work alone.  Some people can do the fully independent thing well, but that wasn’t the way it was for me.  It was incredibly ineffective and completely unsustainable for me.

I’m thinking about this business stuff as I am going into the studio again to record a new album, and it wouldn’t be happening without the support of Asthmatic Kitty.  ”Workhorse” and “Shark’s Teeth” wouldn’t exist either.  So if you want to stick it to someone, stick it to the folks you KNOW are doing something unjust, not to a little independent label who faithfully put out good weird stuff.  Every dime you spend communicates what is important to you.  Just think about which “man” you are supporting when you “vote” with your money and when it comes to me, I just want to say that Asthmatic Kitty ain’t no “man” to rail against.  I don’t want to write music with the hopes of it getting in some stupid commercial.  I want to write music for its own sake and so do most artists I know.  In the words of Laurie Anderson, “Art is for curiosity”.  It needs no other purpose besides what is inherent in the music itself, nor does it exist to necessarily make the world a better place, nor is it always there to entertain us.  Music is a never ending challenge.  It is a mirror of the human experience.  It is as infinite as Spirit.  Three cheers to a record label that supports that.  Three cheers to you for being here, and caring and considering and being patient in reading my rant, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting my work in whatever way you have.  I am living my dream.  Thank you.

Sorry for the soapbox.  Just thought I’d let you know where I stand.

S-Dub