Wasp

A recording of the current Tony-nominated Broadway show Illinoise: A New Musical will be released digitally on Nonesuch Records on May 31, 2024. A sneak peek of two album tracks—“Chicago (Reprise)” and “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!”—is available below. The new work features music and lyrics by Sufjan Stevens based on his album Illinois, a book by Tony Award-winning director-choreographer Justin Peck (Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Carousel) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview, Marys Seacole), and direction and choreography by Peck. Details of the CD and LP release date will be announced shortly.

Eddie 9V has an endless stockpile of cool stories – and you’ll find twelve of them on new studio album Saratoga, released 22nd November 2024 on the fabled Ruf label. It’s a record that will thrill both newcomers and fans who have trailed Eddie since the start, showcasing his fresh, fiery spin on Southern soul, blues, rock and funk, with his signature wit and sharp observations of modern America placing him squarely in the here-and-now. “I do think it’s a wonderful road trip album,” he nods.

A recording of the current Tony-nominated Broadway show Illinoise: A New Musical will be released digitally on Nonesuch Records on May 31, 2024. A sneak peek of two album tracks—“Chicago (Reprise)” and “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!”—is available below. The new work features music and lyrics by Sufjan Stevens based on his album Illinois, a book by Tony Award-winning director-choreographer Justin Peck (Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Carousel) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview, Marys Seacole), and direction and choreography by Peck. Details of the CD and LP release date will be announced shortly.

The atmospheric aquatic adventures of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASPs) provided the perfect grounds for the evolution of Barry Gray’s own musical odyssey. After navigating otherworldly vistas with experimental minimalism in Fireball XL5, Gray anchored Stingray’s underwater exploits with a cannon of earth-bound incidentals. Employing flutes and gentle woodwind sounds to set the scene, Gray’s music drew attention to the wonder of the series premise, employing lush heavenly strings for the series’ closing theme, ‘Aqua Marina’ (a croon brought to life by in-demand vocalist Gary Miller). The off-duty exploits of the WASP characters also allowed Gray to return to his jazzy routes, with the production team adding a loving reference to the composer in the episode Tune of Danger with a ‘Graystein’ Piano. Episodic melodrama was once again brought to life with bold brass, and driving military marches would establish the WASPs’ base, Marineville, and an unforgettable Match of the Oysters (in The Secret of the Giant Oyster). The DNA of the which would foreshadow the iconic theme for the Andersons’ next series…

Eddie 9V has an endless stockpile of cool stories – and you’ll find twelve of them on new studio album Saratoga, released 22nd November 2024 on the fabled Ruf label. It’s a record that will thrill both newcomers and fans who have trailed Eddie since the start, showcasing his fresh, fiery spin on Southern soul, blues, rock and funk, with his signature wit and sharp observations of modern America placing him squarely in the here-and-now. “I do think it’s a wonderful road trip album,” he nods.