Premiere: Peter Gordon's New Symphony 5 Album

Music

In the last few years, Peter Gordon has released a retrospective of his work on DFA Records, recorded respective collaborations with Factory Floor, Archangel, and Tim Burgess, and served as music producer on Robert Ashley’s opera Vidas Perfectas. Now with Symphony 5, released today via London label Foom, the New York-based artist offers an updated version of the sound he’s been refining over thirty-seven years.

You can hear it exclusively below.

Recorded in front of a live audience by Grammy-winning producer Jeff Jones “The Jedi Master” on June 5, 2013, in the acoustically marvellous hall at Roulette in Brooklyn, SYMPHONY 5 captures the best of both worlds: the communication and energy of an ensemble performance, and the punch and careful attention to detail of a studio recording.

Mr Gordon very kindly wrote some words about his latest work for us too:

"Symphony #5 was composed from 2007 to 2013. At first, I didn’t think I had set out to write a symphony: the extended multi-movement composition evolved until it was apparent that it was a symphony. However, looking back on my earliest notes, I now see that the very first draft was titled “Symphony North”. Musically, the focus is on counterpoint and harmony, cellular motivic development (riffs), and shifting rhythmic matrices (syncopation.) The first movement is an exposition of the musical materials used throughout the work. The following movement, Transgression, begins the rhythmic drive that is maintained for the rest of the work. “Juvenalia,” the third movement, is inspired by Cash Money Millionaires’ “Project Chick. “Homeland Security” brings on the urgency of our current situation, and “Chamber Disco” is a stone cold flipside of the third movement. The first two movements, are through-composed, and originated as a work for string quartet. The latter movements are modularly structured, written with the Love Of Life Orchestra in mind."