UPDATE: After winning a Pulitzer Prize and a pre-release listening party on WQXR, John Luther Adams's Become Ocean is now streaming. Just days before the Sept. 30 release on Cantalopue Records, Adams's oceanscape has found a place on NPR's "First Listen" segment.
Commissioned by the Seattle Symphony, Become Ocean was first introduced to the world at Carnegie Hall and led by conductor Ludovic Morlot. Take a listen to Become Ocean here in its entirety.
Tomorrow, tune in to WQXR as John Luther Adams presents a pre-release listening of his album Become Ocean, to be released on Cantaloupe Records.
Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning album was recorded with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under music director Ludovic Morlot.
Q2 Music will host the exclusive listening event in 5.1 surround-sound Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. in The Greene Space at WQXR.
Prior to the listening party, an interview with Adams about the story behind Become Ocean will take place. Helga Davis, from Q2 Music, will host the event, which entails lighting, spacing, seating and complementary visuals designed in consultation with Adams. The accompanying visual will provide the precise environment to experience Become Ocean in.
"As a composer and a listener, I hope to discover strange, beautiful new places and to get hopelessly lost in them," said Adams on the performance. "The best place to experience Become Ocean is in the middle of the stage between the three instrumental choirs of the orchestra. At Carnegie Hall, that's not possible."
Watch the world premiere performance of Become Ocean below with the Ludovic Morlot-conducted Seattle Symphony at the Benaroya Hall in Seattle in June 2013:
