“Minimalism has been dominated by straight white men — Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass — but Eastman, a gay black man, even if his take on the style was idiosyncratic and perhaps ahead of its time,” wrote the New York Times in 2016. Another leftist fad indulged in by New York snobs? Don’t think so. Since that was written, Julius Eastman’s musical output, all-but forgotten for a quarter century, has been the focus at the London Contemporary Music Festival, MaerzMusik in Berlin and Krakow’s Sacrum Profanum festival, and has been all over the press, including Gazeta Wyborcza here in Poland.

Thanks to Sacrum Profanum curator Krzysiek Pietraszewski, new versions of Eastman’s most famous work (with the revealing title Evil Nigger) can now make their way onto our album. Its cascade of sounds, usually produced by four grand pianos, has been rendered this time by the renowned Arditti String Quartet (arranged by Tomasz Opałka) and by two Polish accordion masters, Rafał Łuc and Maciej Frąckiewicz (arranged by Piotr Peszat).

Today, Eastman’s timely music resounds as powerfully as the scary/funny titles of his most acclaimed compositions (including the provocative, now lost Nigger Faggot). This is music for our day, as the nation’s Archbishop Jędraszewski warns of a “rainbow plague” and Poland’s Most Important Person speaks of imminent “Sharia law areas”. We’re under no illusion that music can have any sobering effect—we just hope it can give us strength and courage.