Today’s Four/Ten Media video premiere features harpist Ashley Jackson performing Danielle Eva Schwob‘s “The Long Way Down” from Schwob’s album Out of the Tunnel.
Out of the Tunnel is one of two forthcoming albums from Schwob in 2019 and includes solo and chamber works recorded by Jackson, PUBLIQuartet, Nathalie Joachim, Jennifer Choi, Michael Nicolas, Kristi Shade, Simon Boyar, Andy Lin, and Orion Weiss. Schwob will also release an album later this year titled Overloaded as part of her cinematic experimental alternative project DELANILA.
Here’s what Danielle had to say about “The Long Way Down:”
“The Long Way Down” was commissioned by one of my longtime collaborators and close friends, harpist Ashley Jackson, for her solo performance at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn in 2017. The title refers to the feeling of coming back down to earth after an intense, imaginative and somewhat isolating creative period, and was written shortly after I finished another long project that had proven particularly draining. Ashley and I workshopped the piece together over a couple of months, through from the earliest sketches to completion. It’s dedicated to a visual artist friend I met in Los Angeles who lived downstairs from me–a literal descent via staircase, the long way down.
Out of the Tunnel is out October 2019 on innova Recordings.
About Danielle Eva Schwob
Originally from London, Danielle Eva Schwob is a “notable cross-genre composer” (The New Yorker) who writes concert music, experimental electronic alt-rock songs and film scores. Her work has been featured by Lincoln Center, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, Chamber Music America, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MATA Festival and more, earning honors from The Aaron Copland Fund, New Music USA, The American Composers Forum, ASCAP, CMNY and BMI, among others. She was a Sundance Composers Lab Fellow, a Con Edison EtM Composer-in-Residence, an ACA Associate Artist in Residence and a MAP Fund Finalist. She has worked with artists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ben Folds, Tara Hugo and Philip Glass, The Pogues, and David Simon, as well as on Darren Aronofsky’s mother!, Shakespeare in the Park, David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies, Manhattan Night and Indignation. Her work has been performed and/or recorded by artists including American Modern Ensemble, PUBLIQuartet, Janus Trio, pianist Vicky Chow, cellist Michael Nicolas and many more. She has also worked on projects for companies such as IMAX, CBS and Hulu. Press includes the NY Times, TimeOut, NPR, Consequence of Sound and many more.
2019 sees the release of two albums: Out of the Tunnel, a set of small chamber works due via Innova Records, and Overloaded, the debut recording of her new cinematic experimental alternative artist project, DELANILA. The latter, a reflection on technology and the strange connected yet disconnected lives we lead today, was co-produced by three-time Grammy-winning ‘super producer’ David Bottrill (Tool, Muse), with contributions from Grammy-winning engineer Emily Lazar (Beck, Sia), Nick Semrad and Adam Agati (Cory Henry’s Funk Apostles), Jennifer Choi (John Zorn), Ljova and many more. Other recent projects include Infoxication, an immersive multimedia dance performance produced with curator Roya Sachs, harpist Ashley Jackson and choreographer Dusan Tynek that was supported by Google and Spring Place, a two composer ‘portrait concert’ of premieres also featuring John Zorn that was presented by Roulette, and Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter – a forthcoming multimedia performance celebrating the life of astrophysicist Vera Rubin created with Angélica Negrón, Parhelion Trio and Alexandra duBois.
About Ashley Jackson
Praised for her rhythmic precision and dynamic range, harpist Dr. Ashley Jackson enjoys a multifaceted career as a highly sought-after musician and collaborator in New York and beyond. She holds degrees from Juilliard (DMA) and Yale University (BA, MM). As an orchestral harpist, she performs with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolis Ensemble, and NOVUS NY, and has appeared on stages in New York and around the world including Carnegie Hall, Park Avenue Armory, Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman, and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China. A passionate advocate for developing new works across artistic disciplines, she has premiered works by Brad Balliett, Doug Balliett, Danielle Eva Schwob, and Nina Young. As a recipient of a NewMusicUSA grant, this past Fall she co-produced Infoxication, an immersive, genre-bending ballet created by co-producers Roya Sachs and Danielle Eva Schwob. She has also performed at New York Fashion Week, and was featured in the fashion and style blog, Swagger New York.
Throughout her academic and professional careers, Dr. Jackson has demonstrated a commitment to diversity and inclusion within the performing arts. Her speaking engagements have included “Affinities: Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes” (Studio Museum of Harlem) and “Representation as Resistance: How an Activist Orchestra Redresses the Push-out of Black Practitioners from Classical Music” (Harvard University). As a writer, her works have appeared on NewMusicBox (“The Cultural Citizen: How Classical Music Got Me Woke,” as well as in the International Journal of Women in Music (“Margaret Bonds and The Ballad of the Brown King: A Historical Overview”). She is currently on faculty at Vassar College.
