Sun Ra Arkestra and Jessie Cox Premiere 'As A Song of A World'

On November 5th Jessie Cox and the Sun Ra Arkestra present a new work, commissioned by the Paul Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City. Doors open at 7pm with the first live screening of a film of Jessie Cox's opera "As A Song of A World," which was directed by Adrien H. Tillmann. The concert will begin at 7:30pm and features the Sun Ra Arkestra, Jessie Cox, Laura Cocks, Sam Yulsman, the String Noise violin duo, Eddy Kwon, and Tyler J. Borden.

Jessie Cox describes this new work as a celebration of Sun Ra and the Arkestra's legacy and a reflection on their pracitces' continued relevances. To this aim Cox developed a unique musical score: a virtual cosmos travealable by musicians. As Cox explains: "during the performance the Arkestra will take us on a journey into and through outer space."

Jessie Cox's Bio by Robin Smith:
One of the world's most brazenly experimental composers, Swiss artist Jessie Cox makes music about the universe-and our future in it. Through avant-garde classical, experimental jazz, and sound art, he has devised his own strand of musical science fiction, one that asks where we go next. Cox's music goes forward. When he describes it, he compares it to time travel and space exploration, likening the role of a composer to that of a rocket ship traversing undiscovered galaxies. He is influenced by a vast array of artists who have used their music to imagine futures, and takes Afrofuturism as a core inspiration, asking questions about existence, and the ways we make spaces habitable. Known for its disquieting tone and unexpected structural changes, his music steps into the unknown, and has been referred to by the New Yorker as an example of "dynamic pointillism," a nebulous and ever-expanding sound world that includes "breathy instrumental noises, mournfully wailing glissandi, and climactic stampedes of frantic figuration."