The Living Earth Show - Music for Hard Times

Music for Hard Times

The Living Earth Show Collaborates with Composer Danny Clay on an experimental new age album created as a sonic resource for comfort and calm

 

Recorded over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the album will be released on Earthy Records January 18

 

New York, NY – January 13, 2022 – On January 18, the “outstanding” (San Francisco Chronicle) contemporary chamber duo The Living Earth Show will release Music for Hard Times, the first album on their newly launched Earthy Records label. Releases to follow on the label in 2022 include Lyra (composer Samuel Adams), Shah Nameh: Book of Kings (composer Sahba Aminikia), and A Kind of Ache (composer Sarah Hennies). Music for Hard Times was composed by Danny Clay in March 2020 as an eight-part series of “calming strategies” as his and other working musicians’ lives came to a standstill during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

 

Recorded in isolation and compiled and edited by Clay, Music for Hard Times exists in two parts. Book 1 was recorded in April 2020 in the homes of guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson of The Living Earth Show using instruments, voices, field recordings, and found objects. Book 2 was recorded in 2021 and includes young musicians from the San Francisco Girls Chorus – led by Valerie Sainte-Agathe – and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, led by Edwin Outwater.  

 

With Music for Hard Times, Danny Clay aimed at answering the question: “Is it possible for us to use the tools of classical art music to make people feel better?” To test these strategies, Clay called upon longtime collaborators Meyerson and Andrews of The Living Earth Show, who spent the following weeks recording the sixteen hours of raw material that became Music for Hard Times Book 1.  

 

In January 2021, the duo enlisted the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus and students from the San Francisco Conservatory to help realize and refine Clay’s vision. Music for Hard Times Book 2 emerged as the collective product of hundreds of hours of recordings by these scattered forces, with recordings made all over the world sent to Clay’s home studio in San Francisco to create a whole. 

 

“In contrast to Book 1, the recordings from the chorus members and conservatory instrumentalists range broadly in sound qualities, recording techniques, and acoustic environments,” writes fellow composer Timo Andres in the album’s program notes. “Incidental noises, environmental sounds, and intrusions that could be considered ‘imperfections’ were encouraged. Clay deftly turned these gulfs in production values into yet another musical parameter to be considered, toyed with, and emotionally charged.” Though originally intended as a tool for musicians, the collaboration of Music for Hard Times became something bigger – serving the purpose of communal self-care. “The whole process functions as a bridge, connecting conservatory training to instrumental practice to what it means to be a human being,” says Andres. “As we listen, we’re lifted out of our claustrophobic quarantine apartments and into the wider world, alongside the musicians themselves.” 

 

To complement the album, visual artists Nick Ross and Brandie Grogan have created a limited-edition book, and artist Jon Fischer produced a full-length film.  An accompanying score is available for all who wish to take on Clay’s “calming strategies.” The composer writes that, “While originally conceived for specific instruments (guitar, vibraphone, assorted percussion), these strategies can be realized using whatever a person has at their disposal, regardless of musical experience.”  

 

A video clip of Music for Hard Times: Book 1 can be experienced HERE 

 

Music for Hard Times audio:

streaming via Soundcloud HERE 

wav files can be downloaded HERE 

mp3 files can be downloaded HERE

cover art HERE

full liner notes and score HERE

 

Music for Hard Times  

 

The Living Earth Show 

Danny Clay, composer 

 

San Francisco Girls Chorus 

Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director 

 

San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra 

Edwin Outwater, Music Director 

 

Jon Fischer, film 

 

Edited & mixed by Danny Clay 

 

Mastered by Ryan Kleeman & Travis Andrews 

 

About The Living Earth Project 

Now in their eleventh year of “outstanding” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “transcendent” (Charleston City Paper) performances, The Living Earth Show–guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson–is a megaphone and canvas for the world’s most progressive artists. One of the premiere contemporary chamber ensembles in the United States, The Living Earth Show exists to push the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility while amplifying voices, perspectives, and bodies that the classical music tradition has often excluded. The organization uses the tools of experimental classical music to foreground BIPOC and LGBTQ artists, facilitating the creation of their most ambitious musical visions and creating work that reflects and responds to our world.? 

 

Based in San Francisco, The Living Earth Show has presented seasons of commissioned multimedia productions since 2011, working with dance companies, visual artists, sculptors, poets, and other musicians to craft compelling, immersive, California-centric productions.? 

 

The organization’s most recent live season (2019-20) included performances at the Spoleto Festival USA, Sutro Baths (Tremble Staves: a collaboration with the National Parks Service), Davies Symphony Hall (a collaboration with the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus), The Met Cloisters (Lordship & Bondage: The Birth of the Negro Superman: a collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art), and ODC Theater for a presentation of a festival in honor of The Living Earth Show’s 10th anniversary. 

 

Committed to supporting the next generation of artistic thinkers, The Living Earth Show has been in residence at University of Maryland (2021), the Music Department at Stanford University (2019), the University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies (2019), University of California Davis (2018), and University of South Carolina (2018). 

 

The Living Earth Show has released three critically acclaimed albums: M. Lamar’s Lordship & Bondage: The Birth of the Negro Superman (2019), Dance Music (2016) and High Art (2013). Upcoming albums in 2021 include Samuel Adams’ Lyra, Sahba Aminkia’s Shahnameh: Book of Kings, Sarah Hennies and Terry Berlier’s A Kind of Ache (co-commissioned by The University of Maryland), and the debut album by COMMANDO: a nü metal project organized by The Living Earth Show foregrounding some of the most legendary LGBTQIA POC rappers, singers, yellers, and rockers in the country. 

 

About Danny Clay 

Danny Clay is a composer and teaching artist whose work is deeply rooted in curiosity, collaboration, and the sheer joy of making things with people of all ages and levels of artistic experience. 

 

Working closely with artists, students, and community members alike, he builds worlds of inquiry, play, and perpetual discovery that integrate elements of sound, movement, theater, and visual design. Children's games, speculative systems, cognitive puzzles, invented notation, found objects, imaginary archives, repurposed media, micro-improvisations, and happy accidents all make frequent appearances in his projects. 

 

Recent collaborators include Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, Volti,?the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Wu Man, Sarah Cahill, Phyllis Chen, and printmaker Jon Fischer. His work has been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP), Ensemble Dal Niente, and has been presented by the deYoung Museum, San Francisco Performances, the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts at the Minnesota Street Project, the Grey Area Foundation for the Arts, the Meaney Center for the Arts in Seattle, and university programs throughout the United States. 

 

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