Saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington recently announced a forthcoming EP, the first release since his acclaimed Brainfeeder triple-album of 2015, The Epic. Titled Harmony of Difference, the six-part suite will come out via the British indie label Young Turks this summer. The music can be heard now in a video installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial, which runs through June 11.
Washington will discuss the new music in JT’s June issue. As he tells the magazine’s Brad Farberman, the project came together as a reaction to recent social and political turmoil in the U.S. “The idea of diversity just became such a negative thing. … There was no celebration of it,” says Washington, whose new work uses counterpoint as a metaphor for cultural interdependence. “It was all just like, ‘How big of a problem is it?’ [chuckles] And I always looked at it as the reverse. Like, it’s not a problem at all. … It’s a beautiful thing. … It is what the culture of the United States is.”
The saxophonist has also released the video that accompanies the suite’s final movement, “Truth.” The short is directed by A.G. Rojas and can be seen below. For more on Washington, read David Fricke’s JT essay on the saxophonist’s rise, published last year.
https://youtu.be/rtW1S5EbHgU
Originally Published
