“Epitaphs from the Hill” is a cross-disciplinary encounter between music and the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters. The collection of poems titled “Spoon River Anthology”(1914) tells the stories of the inhabitants of an imaginary town, Spoon River. These stories are told by the inhabitants themselves in the form of epitaphs, where they finally reveal the darkest parts of their lives. Their tales of corruption, bitterness, violence, unreciprocated love, and longing for lost youth, destroy the idyllic image of the American village of the time leaving space to a more crude, realistic depiction. Once dead, the characters tell the hard truth, free from the fake smiles of socially accepted behaviour. This is arguably a highly relevant issue of today’s society: often, we find ourselves swallowing our negative emotions, for the sake of pleasing our peers, being accepted or because we convince ourselves that, by not addressing our issues, eventually we will make them disappear. Positivity is misused as a tool to hide inner problems, thus merely burying the issues rather than confronting them.
“Epitaphs from the Hill” invites the listeners to quit avoiding their hidden skeletons and to finally work through them, before it’s too late.
credits
released August 18, 2023
Compositions by Anna Bignami and Laura Giulia Veltri
Big Thanks to the musicians
Kati Brien (Alto sax, clarinet, soprano sax)
Johan Toftegaard (alto sax, clarinet, flute)
Niels Vincentz (Tenor sax)
Jacob Rønne Danielsen (Bari sax and Bass clarinet)
Jakob Sørensen (Trumpet and Flugelhorn)
Tobias Stavngaard (Trombone)
Sebastian Zawadzki (Piano)
Matthias Flemming Petri (Bass)
Daniel Sommer (Drums)
Sydney-based trumpeter-composer Ellen Kirkwood uses melody and driving rhythms to reflect the magic of nature in ten original compositions. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 10, 2023