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force majeure

5 Gennaio 2021
Long Island Electrical Systems
28 Dicembre 2020
MARIONETTE
5 Gennaio 2021

”Black Music cannot be replicated, it can only be expressed”

 
Force Majeure is an uplifting suite of real, soulful comfort music – an album that cathartically encapsulates an all-too-familiar human experience of 2020. Featuring 11 pieces performed by bassist Dezron Douglas & harpist Brandee Younger across a series of live-streamed shows from their living room in Harlem, NY, the album was self-recorded by the duo using just a single microphone.
As the early effects of covid-19 plagued the citizens of New York City, Douglas & Younger did as we were all ordered to do. From their apartment in Harlem, their reflex as players and community-builders was immediate. Broadcasting via social media and spreading the word to friends and family, the duo hosted “Force Majeure: Brunch in the Crib with Brandee & Dezron,” a Friday morning live stream where they performed songs.
"We vowed to become a part of the resiliency of this city. You can take the work away, but you can’t stop musicians from being creative.Sometimes it was hard to be because the mood in the world was so dark, but every Friday we felt compelled to give back and allow GOD to heal through vibration.Whatever the next thing is, I will make it a point to be involved because Music saved my life, saves lives, and must be taken care of.”
“Black Music, no matter what genre, is exactly what it is — Music created by Black Musicians for the sake of vibrating on our own frequencies of understanding and empathy. I love all music, but I also recognize that music is a cultural and regional vibration. You don’t have to be Black to play Black music, but if you are out here making money off of Black Culture and have no empathy for the People and the Culture then you are even more part of the problem. Black Lives Matter because for a long time our lives didn’t matter and it was Normal — normal to society and normal to us as Black humans. What’s different between then and now is the fact that the Virus has given people time to focus on the current social media platform used to document evil in this world. The filming and documentation of the loss of human life to evil is more powerful than Politics and Government. It’s LIFE showing us how Inhumane we are as a Human Race. Yet we still haven’t figured it out yet. Let’s hope we aren’t the catalyst for this planet to implode. That would be unfortunate considering we have the chance to fix it. We have the chance to do right by Mother Nature and we have the chance to do right by each other. We always have a chance. Change is inevitable, but is evil and selfishness and self-righteousness a part of change? Certainly! Is Love and Empathy and Humanity a part of change? Most definitely! What side are you on? We are on the side of Love. "

 
 

The duo worked alongside INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM to review the weekly recordings; together they compiled, edited, and eventually arrived at the stream-to-songbook of Force Majeure.

Dezron Douglas - double bass, bass guitar, voice
Brandee Younger - harp, voice
Edited & Sequenced by Scott McNiece
Cover Art by Esther Sibiude
Design & Layout by Craig Hansen
Recorded between March and June, 2020,
at Dezron & Brandee's apartment in Harlem, New York.

 

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