In 2022, David Longstreth introduced a new musical piece called Song of the Earth at a big concert hall in Hamburg, Germany.
This creation was crafted for Stargaze, a chamber orchestra from Berlin. Longstreth took his work on the road to places like Amsterdam, London, and Los Angeles. During this journey, he kept changing and improving it until he finally recorded it in different cities: the Netherlands, Los Angeles, and New York. Now he’s ready to share it with everyone as an album coming out on April 4. In America, Nonesuch and New Amsterdam will release it; Transgressive is handling the UK side of things. You can watch the lyric video for โUninhabitable Earth, Paragraph One,โ which his brother Jake made using drone shots of Lake Tulare in California.
The name Song of the Earth echoes Gustav Mahlerโs famous work Das Lied von der Erde. Longstreth mentioned that his album captures some of Mahler’s themes and feelings.
A book by David Wallace-Wells called The Uninhabitable Earth, written in 2019, also sparked ideas for him. The first paragraph of this book is read aloud in one of today’s songs; Longstreth humorously describes it as โthe Beavis-and-Butthead versionโ of his project.
Fans sometimes feel like music connects to real-life events unexpectedly.
“Today,” Longstreth shared about waking up to smoky air from a wildfire near Altadena that’s grown overnight. His brother’s family had to leave their home early morning but theyโre safe now.
For four years now I’ve been creating something called Song of the Earth. Itโs strange how reality visited my doorstep today with its topic.
The song โUninhabitable Earth, Paragraph Oneโ feels silly yet serious at onceโa Gen-X mix between laughing off doom while acknowledging its presence too!
This piece mostly paints pictures through landscapes or poems about nature; however today makes its anthem part seem relevant .
“When I read David Wallace-Wellsโ opening lines,” said Longstreth reflecting on Haile Selassie’s timeless United Nations speech inspiring Bob Marley’s tune “War.” He felt those words needed music just like before.”