THE NEWS FROM UTOPIA | BANDCAMP - FEATURE

THE NEWS FROM UTOPIA - BANDCAMP FEATURE

by Peter Margasak

September 2023

Violinist Austin Wulliman has always been a voracious listener, digging into new sounds from within and well outside classical music, perpetually exploring new possibilities. In his Chicago days, he was a crucial presence in groups like Spektral Quartet and Ensemble Dal Niente. In 2016 he relocated to New York where he joined the mighty JACK Quartet, arguably the most sophisticated new music string quartet in the U.S. The members of the quartet have long immersed themselves in music that embraces different tuning systems and experiments with harmony, and that particular element eventually led Wulliman to create his own music, developing an extended work thick with overdubbed parts that sparkle, vibrate, and sizzle with strange, often biting harmonies. The violinist played everything, although JACK cellist Jay Campbell pitched in on two of the six sections. Wulliman had a clear narrative in mind as the music comes together, with the final part inspired by the Zadie Smith short story “The Lazy River,” and many of the ideas explored in The News From Utopia were derived from a single sentence early in the story, such as “heartbeat” and “dry air.” In the violinist’s imagination, these notions translate into wild polyrhythms and bracing counterpoint deployed within mind-warping layers, some of which are extended, chopped, and stuck using digital manipulation. While the dystopian fanfares that cut through the din on “The Fool’s Heralds” sound a tad corny in context, they nevertheless spell out a harrowing vision that resonates with the way political showmanship and power struggles seem to ignore the collapse of our planet. Still, even without any narrative context this music crackles with vitality, delivering an almost psychedelic experience that celebrates how trippy harmony can be.