‘Music for Hard Times’ album by The Living Earth Show new at Peaceful Radio Internet Station
8 April 2022 Artists
Click on photo for website.
New York, NY – January 13, 2022 – On January 18, the “outstanding” (San Francisco Chronicle)
contemporary chamber duo The Living Earth Show will release Music for Hard Times, the first album on
their newly launched Earthy Records label. Releases to follow on the label in 2022 include Lyra (composer
Samuel Adams), Shăh Nămeh: Book of Kings (composer Sahba Aminikia), and A Kind of Ache (composer
Sarah Hennies). Music for Hard Times was composed by Danny Clay in March 2020 as an eight-part series
of “calming strategies” as his and other working musicians’ lives came to a standstill during the COVID-19
pandemic.
Recorded in isolation and compiled and edited by Clay, Music for Hard Times exists in two parts. Book 1
was recorded in April 2020 in the homes of guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson of
The Living Earth Show using instruments, voices, field recordings, and found objects. Book 2 was recorded
in 2021 and includes young musicians from the San Francisco Girls Chorus – led by Valerie Sainte-Agathe
– and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, led by Edwin Outwater.
With Music for Hard Times, Danny Clay aimed at answering the question: “Is it possible for us to use the
tools of classical art music to make people feel better?” To test these strategies, Clay called upon longtime
collaborators Meyerson and Andrews of The Living Earth Show, who spent the following weeks recording
the sixteen hours of raw material that became Music for Hard Times Book 1.
In January 2021, the duo enlisted the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus and students from the San Francisco
Conservatory to help realize and refine Clay’s vision. Music for Hard Times Book 2 emerged as the
collective product of hundreds of hours of recordings by these scattered forces, with recordings made all
over the world sent to Clay’s home studio in San Francisco to create a whole.
“In contrast to Book 1, the recordings from the chorus members and conservatory instrumentalists range
broadly in sound qualities, recording techniques, and acoustic environments,” writes fellow composer
Timo Andres in the album’s program notes. “Incidental noises, environmental sounds, and intrusions that
could be considered ‘imperfections’ were encouraged. Clay deftly turned these gulfs in production values
into yet another musical parameter to be considered, toyed with, and emotionally charged.” Though
originally intended as a tool for musicians, the collaboration of Music for Hard Times became something
bigger – serving the purpose of communal self-care. “The whole process functions as a bridge, connecting
conservatory training to instrumental practice to what it means to be a human being,” says Andres. “As
we listen, we’re lifted out of our claustrophobic quarantine apartments and into the wider world,
alongside the musicians themselves.”
To complement the album, visual artists Nick Ross and Brandie Grogan have created a limited-edition
book, and artist Jon Fischer produced a full-length film. An accompanying score is available for all who
wish to take on Clay’s “calming strategies.” The composer writes that, “While originally conceived for
specific instruments (guitar, vibraphone, assorted percussion), these strategies can be realized using
whatever a person has at their disposal, regardless of musical experience.”
About The Living Earth Project
Now in their eleventh year of “outstanding” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “transcendent” (Charleston City
Paper) performances, The Living Earth Show–guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson–
is a megaphone and canvas for the world’s most progressive artists. One of the premiere contemporary
chamber ensembles in the United States, The Living Earth Show exists to push the boundaries of technical
and artistic possibility while amplifying voices, perspectives, and bodies that the classical music tradition
has often excluded. The organization uses the tools of experimental classical music to foreground BIPOC
and LGBTQ+ artists, facilitating the creation of their most ambitious musical visions and creating work that
reflects and responds to our world.
Based in San Francisco, The Living Earth Show has presented seasons of commissioned multimedia
productions since 2011, working with dance companies, visual artists, sculptors, poets, and other
musicians to craft compelling, immersive, California-centric productions.
The organization’s most recent live season (2019-20) included performances at the Spoleto Festival USA,
Sutro Baths (Tremble Staves: a collaboration with the National Parks Service), Davies Symphony Hall (a
collaboration with the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus), The Met Cloisters (Lordship & Bondage: The Birth of
the Negro Superman: a collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art), and ODC Theater for a
presentation of a festival in honor of The Living Earth Show’s 10th anniversary.
Committed to supporting the next generation of artistic thinkers, The Living Earth Show has been in
residence at University of Maryland (2021), the Music Department at Stanford University (2019), the
University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies (2019), University of California Davis (2018),
and University of South Carolina (2018).
The Living Earth Show has released three critically acclaimed albums: M. Lamar’s Lordship & Bondage:
The Birth of the Negro Superman (2019), Dance Music (2016) and High Art (2013). Upcoming albums in
2021 include Samuel Adams’ Lyra, Sahba Aminkia’s Shahnameh: Book of Kings, Sarah Hennies and Terry
Berlier’s A Kind of Ache (co-commissioned by The University of Maryland), and the debut album by
COMMANDO: a nü metal project organized by The Living Earth Show foregrounding some of the most
legendary LGBTQIA POC rappers, singers, yellers, and rockers in the country.
About Danny Clay
Danny Clay is a composer and teaching artist whose work is deeply rooted in curiosity, collaboration, and
the sheer joy of making things with people of all ages and levels of artistic experience.
Working closely with artists, students, and community members alike, he builds worlds of inquiry, play,
and perpetual discovery that integrate elements of sound, movement, theater, and visual design.
Children’s games, speculative systems, cognitive puzzles, invented notation, found objects, imaginary
archives, repurposed media, micro-improvisations, and happy accidents all make frequent appearances
in his projects.
Recent collaborators include Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, Third Coast Percussion, Volti, the San
Francisco Girls Chorus, Wu Man, Sarah Cahill, Phyllis Chen, and printmaker Jon Fischer. His work has been
performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the San Francisco Contemporary Music
Players (SFCMP), Ensemble Dal Niente, and has been presented by the deYoung Museum, San Francisco
Performances, the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts at the Minnesota Street Project, the Grey Area
Foundation for the A
Benno Veugen Music for Hard Times, New Age, New Age Music, Peaceful Radio, Peaceful Radio Internet Station, The Living Earth Show