Julius Eastman — Femenine
Composed in the early 1970’s Femenine is a seventy-one-minute minimalism composition- which blends in light touches of jazz, ethnic percussion and climbing soulfulness. It’s one of the better-known pieces by New York's Julius Eastman- a gay African American composer, pianist, vocalist, and dancer. He sadly passed in the year 1990 at the age of forty-nine, before his work could get the full attention/ respect it deserves.
This is a CD release from late last year- it appears on Austria’s Kairos Music. The disc is presented in the labels house style digipak with booklet attached- this runs twenty-six pages taking in a mix of English & German texts, as well as a few photos too.
The piece was originally scored in the year 1974. The version/ playing we have here is from May 15 2021, and it brings together the five-piece Talea Ensemble, and Harlem Chamber Players who are also a five-piece. With sonically the ten players utilise a mix of wind, string, paino and synthesizers to fully realize the piece.
The work opens with a blend of light rustling & churning percussion tones- these are fairly soon added into a constant ringing & rattling vibe tone. As the work progresses more elements are added to the repetitive sonic map- be it light piano tolling, gentle string glow, subtle synth bass simmer, or light waving wind instrumentation. For a large part of the work, the whole thing is locked down into its jaunting/ ringing pattern- but later on there are a few subtle shifts/ deviations in the flow, though these are not huge- and don’t drastically alter things.
You can clearly hear the influences of Steve Reich- in the whole way the layers of instrumentation are slowly but surely added into the minimalism. Yet there are also hints of jazz, more formal grand classical music composition, and maybe even lightly synth-curled krautrock.
This is the second playing I’ve now heard/ reviewed of this piece- the first being the 2021 Sub Rosa Records release, which featured Ensemble O and Aum Grand Ensemble. And I must say this version certainly feels more jaunting, bright, and well-risingly soulful in its attack.
It’s certainly wonderful to see Eastman’s getting released once again- and I do hope this trend continues, as I’m most keen to hear more of his work & how others approach his compositions.