Jim James, acclaimed
genre-bending solo artist, passionate social activist and leader of legendary
rock band My Morning Jacket, and conductor/composer Teddy Abrams & The
Louisville Orchestra announce the release of their collaborative project, The
Order of Nature. As two of the world's most vibrant and versatile musicians,
neither James nor Abrams shies away from a challenge, and with The Order of
Nature they've crafted a large-scale symphonic suite that has James' evocative
songs as its foundation. Abrams built a grand orchestral house on that
foundation, and the result is an explosion of music that boldly synthesizes
rock and classical while taking advantage of orchestral music's inherently
cinematic nature. Featuring unreleased new songs from James as well as re-imaginings
from his solo catalog, the album will be released October 18 via Decca Gold.
Lyrically, James takes a deep dive into issues vitally
important to him in recent years, including equality and intolerance, human
connection and acceptance. Abrams uses repeating motifs to weave the songs into
a seamless whole, with the goal of capturing the idea of nature in a cinematic
way and turning James' quiet demos into a majestic tapestry that conveys the
album's themes of politics, the natural order and the hopelessness of hatred.
They all spin off of the suite's central theme, which is James' fascination
with the absence of hate in nature. Animals kill each other, but only out of
hunger, while humans daily choose hate —we ignore the order of nature and that
choice is wreaking havoc.
"The core idea to me is trying to reflect on the fact
that nature doesn't know how to hate," says James. "Humans are part of nature obviously,
but why do we have this thing called hatred and how do we get rid of it? We're
fighting nature and thinking we can prevail over nature, but we're killing each
other and killing the planet."
Abrams spent months building a complex symphonic work in
which the songs could breathe, writing music that captures both the quiet drama
of walking alone through a snowy landscape and the urgency of trying to steer a
disrupted society toward kindness.
"We're really looking at addressing things head
on," says Abrams. "That was an interest of mine in working with Jim
because he has a way of taking on challenging and divisive issues and
presenting them in ways that everybody can relate to, even if you're from
different political backgrounds."
"For me it was very inspiring, and it was also
inspiring to hear what Teddy wrote," James added, "and I really
enjoyed just giving him this seed of a song and just watching it flower."
The Order of Nature debuted April 6-7, 2018 as part of the
Louisville Orchestra's annual Festival of American Music. The second night's
performance is what you hear on this album, recorded in one take, no overdubs.
James and Abrams also today announce a three-part
mini-documentary on the making of The Order of Nature. The first chapter,
"Collaboration," is available now.
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