Isadora Records has just announced a new record by Canadian singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman. SONGS FROM THE GOD THAT COMES is a studio recording that re-imagines the music from the live theatrical show of the same name, and will be released on Tuesday March 19, 2013 at www.hawksleyworkman.com and digitally on iTunes. Records will also be available at live shows, including Calgary (at Alberta Theatre Projects, March 19-April 7) and Halifax (2b theatre company, Marquee Ballroom, April 17-21).
Hawksley speaks about the new record, and its roots:
the god that comes was a long time in the making. christian barry of 2b theatre company in halifax initially approached me about a collaboration almost 10 years ago. as these things go sometimes, the right timing and the right idea weren’t to find each other until the summer of 2011. christian brought the idea for the play to me, realizing that the story had a lot of prescient ideas, and seemed to resonate with a lot of social and political themes we both had been thinking about. we began marinating in various versions of the bacchae (a greek play by euripides). the play and music were written during sessions in toronto, burk’s falls, calgary and banff over the span of a year. the writing sessions were really more “jams” than what one might think of proper sit down ‘writing’. reading, thinking, conversation and digression were all as much a part of the process as sitting at the piano, or with pen in hand. the show itself is a one man cabaret, but i felt the songs were so ripe to live in a more cinematic setting, fulfilling a creative wish i’d had for a while about creating an audio movie. the reimagining of the music from the god that comes is an out and out ‘production’ comprised of many instrumental layers… mostly recorded to magnetic tape. the record was purposely built to have constant movement and an undulating of textures. sometimes the musical elements can be changing, shifting and almost imperceptibly in the course of one piece of music.
Christian Barry on the impulse behind the project:
The whole idea of Bacchanalia as an important part of a healthy human existence is something that has always made sense to me. We all need to let a little release, a little abandon, a little recklessness into our lives every now and then. And for me wine and music are a big, big part of that. There was a very natural marriage between Hawksley and this concept from the beginning. There’s always been a lot of theatricality in what Hawksley does, and he’s a real heart & loins kind of a performer. I’ve always felt his shows are Bacchanalian in their own right. So it wasn’t that big of a leap. We got in a room, started writing some songs, and this record is the result.
www.thegodthatcomes.com