Jan 26: Maya Beiser and David Lang release new album "the day" on Cantaloupe Music

Maya Beiser and David Lang will release a new album, the day, on January 26, 2018 on Cantaloupe Music. The album features Lang’s new work for Maya, the day, paired with a new recording of his previous work for her, world to come.

the day (2016) was composed as prequel to world to come (2003). Where world to come chronicles the journey of the soul after life, the day chronicles an individual’s time on earth preceding that journey. Lang’s world to come was written for Maya in response to the events of September 11 at the World Trade Center (which shares the initials of the title of the piece, WTC). The two works are meditations on two journeys: the day on the mortal journey, and world to come on the eternal, post-mortal journey of the soul that follows.

Beiser and Lang were in New York City, and had just begun working on their collaboration for a large multitrack cello piece, when the horrific events of September 11, 2001 occurred. In world to come, Maya’s cello and her voice become separated from each other, and they struggle to reunite in a post-apocalyptic spiritual environment. world to come is a kind of prayer – introspective and highly personal. It is a meditation on hope and hopelessness, asking fundamental questions about the death and life of the soul.

Fifteen years later, Beiser asked Lang to create a “prequel” to world to come. In the day, they wanted to start earlier in the journey, exploring the ways we might review our lives, as they are running away from us. Lang wondered what we might discover if we cataloged the moments in our lives that we remember best, that seem like highlights in our memory of them. He imagined asking 300 very different people the question, “What was the most important day in your life?”

Watch Maya Beiser perform David Lang’s world to come:

See complete information on the press release