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Life Eats Life

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Collin Sherman

Label: Ex-tol Recordings
Released: 2025
Duration: 00:52:13
Views: 186

Tracks

Kepler-10b Prehistory; Life Eats Life; Requiem; Scarcity of Abundance; Hungrily They Wait; Action, Unrest.

Personnel

Additional Personnel / Information

Collin Sherman: Soprano saxophone, tárogató, clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe, piano, keyboards, synthesizers, electric cello, 4-string box guitar with cello strings, shruti box, drum programming.

Album Description

This is a collection of pieces I’ve worked on over the past couple of years. “Kepler-10b Prehistory” is a rhythmic, groove heavy piece centered around a repeating bass riff and adds layers of horns, bowed strings, and synth accents, with the eventual introduction of overtly electronic percussion. “Life Eats Life”, the title track, begins with slow, contemplative horn harmonies and a simple theme. Midi strings and a droning analog synth combine with sparse militaristic percussion to build intensity before a short climactic frenzy, with an uneasy resolve back into the theme. “Requiem” is a slow, mournful piece featuring the tárogató (a Hungarian woodwind with a timbre and range similar to that of a soprano saxophone) and accompanied by electric cello, midi dulcimer, and shruti box. I initially composed a truncated iteration of this piece November 9, 2024, the weekend after the U.S. presidential election. I fleshed out the full theme the following January. The original November 2024 version of the piece, which I recorded with alto saxophone and electric cello (a video for which is available online), was accompanied by these words: "Requiem for the U.S. Requiem for Democracy. Requiem for Western Liberalism. We chose fear. We chose hate. We chose ignorance. We can build back from the inevitable setbacks. The orange demagogue caused real damage the first time around, from which we are still recovering. There is undoubtedly much more damage to come. We will come back from it, eventually. It will be a dark time until then. Good luck." These words seem even more true now, as the first six months of the second Trump administration has ushered in an unprecedented reversal of the gains in human rights and civil liberties made over the past 75 or so years, driven by sheer malice and wanton cruelty. As each new day seems to reveal a new low to the craven cesspool of hate into which we have tumbled, I wonder when and where it will end. “Scarcity of Abundance” uses two layers of bowed 4-string box guitar with cello strings to establish a murky harmonic foundation for spirited and driving responses from the alto saxophone, piano, and electric cello. “Hungrily They Wait”, which has the sparsest instrumentation on the album, uses rhythmic pulses plucked from the cello to create a monotonous but insistent springboard for the alto saxophone to launch into alternately restless and melancholic explorations. “Action, Unrest” gathers steam over its 11 ½ minute runtime to high energy through its fervent alto saxophone and cello improvisations over increasingly abrasive synths. Although the simple theme which begins and ends the piece is in 7/4, the percussion is without meter, and the piece was designed to allow free reign to wander into different rhythm signatures. I hope you find meaning in these pieces during our sad and tumultuous era.