Notes Vol. 6
in which 'Greenland Diary' album arrives July 18!
It’s been ten years (!) since I released an album and it’s about dang time. Greenland Diary is 11 tracks and it’s arriving July 18, but I want you to preorder a copy now! Of course, this album is not what I’d call traditional. There’s no standard format for physical media anymore, is there? Thus, ‘Greenland Diary’ will be arriving as a digital album, with the option of a 100+ page full-color (physical) book that I wrote, photographed, and designed myself. It’s a travelogue, a diary as companion to the music, a day-to-day of two months in Greenland last fall, thinking a lot about life and mortality (and identity theft) and what it means to move through the world today.
Top: Cyanotype of me eating a big chunk of iceberg. Bottom: recording Greenlandic trash sounds. The usual.
I hope you like the album—it’s a wild ride through eclectic styles, so you’ll either have whiplash, or you’ll sense some recurring themes in all the variety. There’s piano and voice, special guests of flute, bass clarinet, a percussion trio who sings. There’s me singing in Kalallisut (Greenlandic), with the help of a local musician and coach, and permission from the singer I cover. There’s sounds of me making noise on found objects in the local trash dump, giving them one more life. There’s beautiful bubbling sounds of icebergs melting underwater. There’s layered harmonium (pump organ) sounds evoking said iceberg, turning slowly in the fjord. And there’s other works for piano and even digital beats, thinking about how we grieve and celebrate in the world.
Reserve your music/book now! Or get it July 18, but however you do it, I appreciate your support more than you know. Okay, you might know. Pics of the proof of the book below!
Here are some other things that are happening, in case you want to know about more Nathan-related things in the coming months.
Aug 8
I’m working with Denver Public Library on some music to announce the ‘One Book One Denver’ project for the year! I think I’m making some…punk inspired sounds? To be determined.
September
Release of ‘Gentle Worship’, a limited edition vinyl album with Perc Ens, a percussion trio in Denver. Finally releasing recordings we made at the TANK Center for Sonic Arts (a massive empty water tank turned recording studio) back in 2023.
October 10
I will be in Joshua Tree National Park for a small solo exhibit of my graphic scores! They’ll be on view at Black Rock Art Gallery. That part of the park is free admission and just outside the park entrance. You’ll be able to scan a QR code for each piece and listen to some clips of interpretations of the piece from myself and my composer-violinist friend, Michiko Theurer.
October 26
I will have three new sound works installed at Denver Art Museum for their Camille Pissarro: The Honest Eye show. I’m excited to give a contemporary-leaning sonic response to these beautiful paintings, and to the life of one of the ‘forefathers’ of the super-famous Impressionists.