It’s neither a covers album nor an album of remix. Reinterpretation? Cropping? Overprint? At the request of the estate of the American post-minimalist composer Julius Eastman (1940-1990), the British Loraine James immersed herself in her formidable and little-known work to imagine this tribute named Building Something Beautiful for Me. Let’s not look too far for the musical connivance, rather for a few reminders — the bell motif of female (1974) appearing in the atmospheric Choose to be Gaythe rhythm of the violins of stay on it (1973) evoked in the rigid Maybe if I in opening and the most noisy and deconstructed Black Excellence on the end. In the middle of the album, Enfield, Always and MyTake rather tend to return to the more rhythmic and angular spirit of his stunning album Reflection, released last year. In his clever and eclectic way, James blends ambient, footwork, bass music and techno on this singular album, drawing inspiration from Eastman’s musical ideas and activism.
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