Premonitions of the Unbuilt City Matt Rogers & Kit Downes
RELEASED ON FRIDAY 3 Sep 2021 | CD | DL
A squabble plays out in a hardback book on the round, polished table in the orangerie. Trees think humans should be more like them: living for hundreds of years, a release from routine mortal fear. Birds think humans should be more like them: singing their thoughts with all their bodies. The faint riffle of discord is drowned by music spilling from a cabinet over empty hammocks slung among broad, dark leaves.
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Inside the striped tent, the asphalt is deranged in great torn-up chunks. Foul water spews from rusted pipes and sinks into the ground like a curse. Two squatting, grim-faced workers raise dented flasks of strong tea with one hand and slam down dominoes with the other. Intent on winning their opponent’s family car – the stakes have risen quickly – they barely hear the music that blares from the large, silver boombox borrowed from an eighties teen movie.
This album is based on the opera She Described It to Death, which was composed by Matt Rogers, with a libretto by Sally O'Reilly. Matt collaborated with Kit Downes to edit and arrange the music, with Kit also providing improvised material. Matt and Kit worked from Christopher Mayo's piano reduction of the opera's score.
Track Listing
- A Failed Assault On The Status Quo
- We Tour The South Of The Great City
- A Showman Takes Control
- A Writer In Hiding
- This Is How The Plants Grow
- The Ringmaster Succumbs
- This Is How Water Is Cleansed
- They Call Out To Atoms
