New Amsterdam Records Presents Clayton's 'Julius Eastman Memory Depot' and Sirota's 'Baroque'

New Amsterdam Records just announced the release and performances of music from Jace Clayton and Nadia Sirota in March and April.

In The Julius Eastman Memory Depot, Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist Jace Clayton (also known for his work as DJ /rupture) focuses on the life and music of gay African-American composer, pianist and vocalist Julius Eastman (1940-1990) on his new album, the first to be released under his own name.

Clayton explores two of Eastman's longest piano works - performed by virtuosic pianists David Friend and Emily Manzo - by running the music from each of the two pianos through a laptop, where he uses custom-built digital tools informed by his acclaimed Sufi Plug Ins project to create an electronic layer built entirely on the pianos' sound. The result is two new songs created by the two pianos and their own electrified and transformed versions that extend Eastman's vision for multiple pianos. The album ends with an original composition by Clayton that features vocalist Arooj Aftab.

Clayton, Friend, and Manzo will perform Eastman works in a live performance entitled the "Julius Eastman Memorial Dinner" this spring, including a free album release show at MoMA's PS1 that will feature 8-channel surround-sound audio:

4/05-06/13 Cincinnati, OH @ Contemporary Arts Center

4/21/13 New York, NY @ MoMA's PS1 (FREE Album Release Event)

4/25-26/13 Minneapolis, MN - Liquid Music @ The Music Room at SPCO Center

For more information about Jace Clayton, visit the New Amsterdam Records site.

The follow up to her debut First Things First (a New York Times album of the year), celebrated violist Nadia Sirota's sophomore album Baroque is predominantly for multi-tracked viola and electronic textures, and features songs written expressly for Sirota by some of the most widely respected composers of her generation: Daníel Bjarnason, Paul Corley, Judd Greenstein, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, and Shara Worden.

The album has already earned significant praise;Time Out New York calls Baroque "luminous, restless and contemplative by turns" and says "the disc proves that the viola is anything but a joke"; Chicago Reader calls it a "mind-blowing collection that electrically fuses classical technique and structures with electronic textures, overdubbing, and full-bodied melodies." It has also been lauded by eMusic, NPR's Deceptive Cadence, Pitchfork, WNYC, and is currently Q2 Music's "Album of the Week."

Sirota is on tour with Valgeir Sigurðsson performing selections from Baroque, as well as performing material from Sigurðsson's recent release Architecture of Loss:

03/27/13 New York, NY @ LPR (Album Release Event)

03/28/13 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Side Chapel

03/29/13 Hamden, CT @ Spaceland Ballroom

Sirota will also perform selections from Baroque in NYC during a special preview performance of Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys in May:

05/14/13 New York, NY @ LPR (w/ Nico Muhly)

For more information about Nadia Sirota, visit this site.

Visit www.NewAmsterdamRecords.com for more information about these artists.

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