Spiritual America William Brittelle

WILLIAM BRITTELLE

SPIRITUAL AMERICA

New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records released composer William Brittelle’s Spiritual America on May 3, 2019. The album features acclaimed American rock duo Wye Oak, Grammy–winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and Grammy-nominated chamber orchestra Metropolis Ensemble, performing a genre-fluid electro-acoustic song cycle written by Brittelle, plus one piece composed by Wye Oak and re-imagined by Brittelle. Spiritual America is the second release in a new partnership between the two record labels, established with the goal of enabling contemporary American composers to realize creative ambitions that might not otherwise be achievable. INDY Week called Brittelle’s creation “One of the most astonishing records of 2019” adding, “likely because it’s hard to describe, categorize, and explain.”

"Spiritual America" is a story of dualities - experimental yet emotionally direct, complex yet raw, exceedingly personal yet broad in scope. Featuring hi-fi orchestra and award-winning children's chorus juxtaposed against bit-crushed guitars, iPhone-derived samples, and vintage synthesizers, Brittelle's genre-fluid, collage-like compositional style finds its fullest, most unadulterated form throughout the album. Bits of hair metal, experimental electronic, vaporwave, modern classical, indie rock, and hyper-pop melt into each other forming a homogenous, utterly unique whole. This dreamlike series of electro-acoustic orchestral songs centers around a loose "coming of age in the '80's" narrative. Images (both lyrical and musical) of cars, sex, God, and teenage angst swirl throughout each movement, coming to a head in the album's emotional apex, "Birds of Paradise". Beneath Brittelle's dense, feverish writing is the forever-world of nostalgia - a dualistic oblivion serving as both salve and siren song for the complexities of adulthood.

For this journey, Brittelle invited collaborators he deeply admired: Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, Metropolis Ensemble, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The album was written over a seven year period and mixed by Brittelle and Zach Hanson (Bon Iver’s 22, A Million, S. Carey, The Staves) over the course of over 250 hours at April Base, the famed Wisconsin studio founded by Justin Vernon.

Spiritual America was created in collaboration with Metropolis Ensemble, the Alabama Symphony, Symphony Space, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series/Walker Art Center, the Palm Springs Art Museum, and the Baltimore Symphony. The project has received critical acclaim for its premiere performances in 2018 at New York City’s Symphony Space (performed by Wye Oak, Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Metropolis Ensemble), and opening for Bon Iver and TU Dance at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles (performed by Metropolis Ensemble).

Track listing: