The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker is a new renaissance artist whose work is best expressed as a constantly evolving practice that doesn’t fit neatly into definition or expectation boxes. It is an artistic body of work vast in scope and scale outside of the confines of a simple elevator pitch, unrestrained and unencapsulated.
Elizabeth has received recognition from press as well as scholars, for her conceptual compositions and commitment to fostering introspective healing spaces within her work. Elizabeth is a certified Reiki Master in the Usui Shiki Ryoho System Of Natural Healing. Elizabeth’s awards include – an AIRIE fellowship (Artists in Residence in Everglades), Individual Artist Grant from the State of Florida, ACF Connect from American Composers Forum (ACF) in partnership with The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM Chicago), and the Matt Marks Impact Award from Alarm Will Sound. Elizabeth was the 2021-2022 Rieman and Baketel Fellow for Music at Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Her experimental film work has been included in Women of the Lens (UK), and the African Smartphone International Film Festival (Nigeria). She has commercially released eleven albums, four books, and is a Voting Member of the Recording Academy.
I think curating a playlist is an art, similar to DJing, you have to consider the flow and energy of the songs and the order in which they are arranged. My approach to curating this playlist was imagining giving a new friend a mixtape of works that I’d like to talk about over coffee. Some of these pieces are new to me and others are tinged with nostalgia. I also think the most important aspect to the mixtape or playlist format is the ability to listen through the mix from beginning to end, so I’ve included links to the playlist on the Spotify and Amazon Music platforms. I use Spotify for accessibility reasons, but I know that it’s not everyone’s preferred streaming platform, so I have included alternative listening locations for each track below.
The Moog and Me by Dick Hyman
In my late teens and early twenties, I loved visiting a very large warehouse record store and crate digging for the most obscure records that I could find in the classical music section… The MOOG and Me remains one of the coolest things I have on vinyl. Dick Hyman is known to most as a celebrated jazz pianist, but very few are aware of his electronic album on one of the original MOOG synths. It comes at a time contemporary to Wendy Carlos’ work with the MOOG system and embodies a really special energy. There’s also notes of humor, if you venture further into the album you find, a track called The Legend of Johnny Pot, which is an homage to the true story of a Johnny Appleseed like character who was planting marijuana along the highways of the USA. Also available on Apple Music.
Untitled One by King Britt & Tyshawn Sorey
This is the collaboration everyone needs to hear. I love that this album was made by two friends who just wanted to collaborate and then released the music on their own terms. I think you feel that in the recordings. This is music existing as communication, connection, and the joy of creating. I think we forget sometimes that no matter how advanced our career, we can just put out albums without the label machine, because we love what we do and want to share it. We don’t have to assign a specific theme either, they can just be a collection of untitled works comprising sounds that moved us in the moment. Also available on Apple Music.
春雨 (Spring Rain) by 大象體操 (Elephant Gym)
Taiwanese band 大象體操 or Elephant Gym has a catalogue with a wide range, and still signature style, but I chose this track from one of their earlier records because I think it’s really cool to see how much a band is able to create with less. I also love Elephant Gym because it’s one of the few projects where the bass guitar is at the front and center of the composition, it’s a vibe I really enjoyed as a teen listening to Squarpusher by it’s nuisance in a different way here that keeps me coming back for more. Also available on Apple Music.
Theater on The BEDs by Shiuan Chang
This track makes it to the list because it comes from an album that engages with a psychiatric hospital in Taiwan that treats patients with a different ideology than many other institutions by humanizing patients with greater autonomy. I think it’s important for us to always understand the power that music has to heal, and not in a narrative sense but in the containment or reference of memory and emotion that can ground us when we are adrift. Also available on Apple Music.
Echoes in the Dust by Bazaar
I recently found out about Stargazing 遊牧時空, the latest album by Taiwanese band Bazaar I’ve been mildly obsessed with listening to this album on repeat ever since. When most people think of world music, they imagine historical instruments playing historical music or a commodified sanitiesed version for sale but this band manages to fuse the past and the present together in delicious grooves that you viscerally feel in your body. Also available on Apple Music.
“Introvert” by Simbiatu “Simbi” Abisola Abiola Ajikawo aka “Little Simz”
Introvert is such a massively epic track for only 6:02 of playtime. In which you’re taken on a journey of strength, vulnerability, frustration, and hope in the lyrics wrapped in a masterful score. The music video (which I highly recommend watching0 is breathtaking. Little Simz is an artist who really understands dynamic range and speaks to the state of the human experience. Introvert is one of her best works. Everytime I return to this piece there’s something new in the lyrics and arrangement to consider about myself and the human condition. Also available on Apple Music.
Nude Beach by Nude Tayne
Nude Beach by Nude Tayne is one of my all time favourite records by one of my all time favourite bands, and they recently released their archives to streaming platforms. I think it’s important to highlight music from the local scene that was never focused on garnering national attention but just friends who came together to make great music and enjoy time together. A lot of us who make music a career sometimes forget that we can make music outside of our professional titles for the joy and connection it brings into our lives. Also available on Apple Music.
Dracula Mountain by Lightning Bolt
Noise music had an integral part in my musical life as Florida in my early 20s when there was a vibrant and rich noise scene. I think noise music is a vital outlet for the rage, frustration, and confusion of modern society. In allowing ourselves the space to listen or play noise music, we are able to release our rage and redirect ourselves into tangible action that supports the community during times of struggle, strife, or stress. Also available on Apple Music and Youtube.
Conduit by Russian Circles
I’ve been following Russian Circles since they first appeared on Myspace in the mid-2000s. I’ve always appreciated the fact that their albums are gapless and meant to be listened to in order as one experience from beginning to end, and they have continued to do this in an industry that increasingly focuses on individual tracks. It’s music that always allows me to hyper focus on a task, and it’s been the soundtrack for me driving around the USA and Canada on various tours. Also available on Apple Music and Youtube.
Thinking Room by Nathan Corder
A lot of the later part of this playlist has a lot of energy and dissonance, so to reset our bodies, I felt that it was necessary to add a final piece by Nathan Corder, which does exactly this for me. For me Nathan’s works are a really meditative place, they ask you to take time to sit with them. A lot of the music on this playlist could be a soundtrack added to daily activities but this last work from Nathan invites the listener to be introspective in a way that is vital for renewal and self-reflection. Also available on Bandcamp.
I CARE IF YOU LISTEN is an editorially-independent program of the American Composers Forum, and is made possible thanks to generous donor and institutional support. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author and may not represent the views of ICIYL or ACF.
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