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A bold, immersive reimagining of Shaker musical tradition, Academy Award-winning composer Daniel Blumberg’s score for Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee presents radical reinterpretations of traditional hymns with original compositions shaped directly on set. Developed in deep collaboration with Fastvold, the music grew alongside the film’s choreography and performances, drawing on the physicality and ecstatic vocal practices of Shaker worship. Blumberg assembled nearly 100 singers, including extreme vocal improvisers Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton, Shelley Hirsch, Freya Edmondes alongside a cast of untrained voices – to create a wordless cacophony of vocal textures that mirrors the Shakers’ ecstatic spiritual practices. This vocal landscape intertwines with tuned percussion, spectral bell tones, celeste, and an ensemble of experimental string players, forming a sonic world that is both elemental and deeply spiritual
Tracklist
Disc: 1
1 The Testament of Ann Lee
2 Manchester
3 Hero Prayer One
4 Walk to Infirmary
5 Infirmary
6 Walk to Wardleys
7 Wardleys
8 Worship
9 Sex Celeste
10 Beautiful Treasures
11 Search for Ann
12 I Never Did Believe
13 Hunger & Thirst
14 Ship
15 Lower Deck
16 Today Today
17 Storm
18 All Is Summer
Disc: 2
1 Magical Boat Ride
2 John's Running Song
3 Whores
4 Niskayuna
5 The Eclipse
6 Bow Down O Zion
7 Building & Growing
8 William Walking
9 I Love Mother (Pretty Mother's Home)
10 Arrest
11 Stone Prison
12 Shattuck
13 Down to the Deep
14 Beautiful Treasures Funeral
15 Clothed By the Sun