Maya Beiser’s new album, the day, features two works by David Lang written for Maya. The day was composed as prequel to world to come from 2003. Where world to come chronicles the journey of the soul after life, the day chronicles our 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 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.Maya says, “My new album, the day, is a meditation about life, death, and the afterlife. It’s not a lighthearted theme, but ours is not a lighthearted period. So I chose songs about the end and named my playlist ‘the day after.’ It sounded really gloomy, if appropriate. But then I thought that any time when people get together to make music is a good time. And music is innocent. To quote the great Neil Young: Don’t let it bring you down. There are still things we can do to make it better.”Follow Maya on Twitter and Instagram.
