Ted Hearne - The Source
http://www.tedhearne.com/project-details/2015/10/9/the-source
The Source is a modern-day oratorio, and a patchwork of songs based on American primary-source texts. The subject is Chelsea Manning, the US Army Private who infamously leaked hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010.
The text, culled and arranged by librettist Mark Doten, sets Manning's words and sections of the classified material known as the Iraq War Logs and the Afghan War Diary.
The music, like the text, draws from diverse sources. Auto-tuned recitatives, neo soul ballads, icy string trios and moments of cracked-out musical theater are peppered with (and sometimes structured around) samples that bridge sonic worlds.
That's putting it mildly..."discombobulating" would be putting it mildly. I can honestly say that the first listen upset me in a way I do not usually get upset, especially by music. Disturbing music, disturbing in some pretty fundamental ways, ways that create involuntary reactions of...being disturbed.
Of course I'm going to listen again. But this time...once through means never again hearing it for the first time. So now I can start trying to have some "intellectual" reactions. Maybe? Hopefully?
And yeah, Ted Hearne. He's on my list now, names to start following unless/until there's a sustained set of reasons to suck.