Finalist in 2023 for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for music, composer Jlin is gaining ground. “It’s a huge honor, but I still have a lot of work to do,” modestly comments the musician from Gary, a town in the suburbs of Chicago, whose talent has finally blossomed out of the shell of the electronic scene. parallel. Akoma, his third studio album, released on March 22, is one of the most visionary electronic works of recent years; its creator talks to us about her influences, including that of the legendary Philip Glass, who participates in the album.
What things have happened in Jerrilynn Patton’s life since our last conversation in 2018, during her visit to Montreal for the Mutek festival! “Mutek, that’s where I learned to play live, Jlin recalls. The organizers told me they weren’t scheduling DJs at their festival, so I had to develop a way of performing with instruments — and I haven’t stopped since that first show. »
She is increasingly in demand, by the stage and the world of scholarly music, having composed in particular for the famous Kronos Quartet who, in exchange, collaborates on her new album (Sodalite, grandiose). In 2020, she was invited to compose Perspective, work intended for the contemporary ensemble Third Coast Percussions. An extraordinary piece, a perfect introduction to the musical universe of Jlin, where varied percussion becomes melodic and harmonic instruments. Jlin first recorded a multitude of sounds played by the percussionists, which she then assembled on the computer.
Perspective earned Jlin a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. “Today I assume the title of composer, because I know all the work that it requires. The layers and layers of sonic ingredients I put together, the hours spent orchestrating. I sometimes work with over 300 sound tracks, one on top of the other on the computer screen. I learned to embrace the title because that’s what I do: I compose musical works electronically. »
The heart
Jlin interrupted a creative residency near Albany, New York, last week to chat with The duty by interposed cameras. It’s early in the morning, “but I’m an early riser anyway.” I spend my mornings composing.”
At this residency, she is preparing her next tour with the multidisciplinary artist Florence To, who designed the cover ofAkoma, this photograph of a sculpture made of superimposed metal cylinders symbolizing the balance “between the drum and harmony”, summarizes Jlin. ““Akoma” means “heart” in Ghana [dans la langue des Ashantis], because in my opinion, the original drum is the heart that beats. »
Which beats frantically, let us specify.
Jlin comes from this Chicago music scene called juke or footwork. Appearing around twenty years ago, the genre, derived from techno, is distinguished by its very jerky rhythmic pattern, similar to breakbeat jungle and British drum’n’bass, as if these two genres existed outside the context of the Jamaican musical influence that gave birth to them. This rhythmic pattern is also incredibly malleable in a musical composition, a sort of Lego block of the beat.
What architect Jlin does with these blocks is breathtaking. From the first piece ofAkoma, Borealis, collaboration with Björk, who doesn’t sing — “and that’s what I wanted when working with her: to do something different than what one might have expected.” With his groove mischievous and these abrupt changes of rhythm of which Jlin has the secret, Borealis immediately strikes the imagination. On Summonfurther on, we move on to the concert hall, the bowing of the cellos taking up all the space left by the drums, apart from a few percussion punctures.
One of the most fascinating pieces on the album is also the shortest — it lasts barely two minutes: Challenge (To Be Continued II) has a cadence resembling that of hip-hop (in tempo, at least), the composer recycling the sounds of Third Coast Percussion to evoke the marching bands with which she grew up – particularly those of HBCUs, these historically black American universities – and which constitute one of the most important inspirations ofAkoma.
“First, all HBCUs have their marching bands, and their role in the community is crucial” in teaching not only music, but also discipline, coordination and the quest for excellence, Jlin explains. “Its musicians are precise, accurate, but soulful at the same time. »
“My mother told me these stories of matches between sports teams, but especially the rivalry between the marching bands accompanying these teams. However, the majority of HBCU marching bands play on worn out, poor quality instruments, the ones that major university marching bands get rid of, and they outperform with the instruments they are given. This is the expression of African-American culture: doing the impossible with what we are given. »
Patience
The highlight of the disc, at the end of the album, is The Precision of Infinity, co-written with Philip Glass, who also plays piano. A grandiose work, carried by the muscular flights of Glass, set ablaze by the breath of the percussions imagined by Jlin – you have to listen to this piece at full volume to appreciate the groove and the gigantic bass lines!
“By beginning the work to Akoma, I didn’t yet know what I wanted to do, except this: collaborate with Philip Glass. I was told that he also got up very early in the morning to practice on the piano. » In contact with her team, Jlin simply asked her to record her morning exercises so that she could embroider orchestrations around them. “The first demo I made was bad, I threw it away; the second is the one we hear on the album. » During a concert at Rockefeller Center in October 2022, Jlin performed the piece, accompanied by the Kronos Quartet, in front of Glass, who was celebrating his 87th birthday.e birthday.
“Philip is such a modest person,” comments Jlin. It took him 87 years to become the master of his person — that’s why I named the play Precision of Infinity, because it is not a question here of perfection, rather of this infinite space inside us from which we draw inspiration. »
“We sometimes experience blank page syndrome, as composers, only to then rediscover the exhilarating impulse to create, and that’s our whole life. You have to take all the time you need to find that inspiration — that’s what Philip told me the second time we met. He told me : “You’re doing great, but the only thing I want you to do is take time and be patient with yourself, even when you lack inspiration.” You have to overcome frustration and disappointment. Since then, I have learned to be more patient. »