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PRIMEMOVER

by Joshua Stamper

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jlukebassett
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jlukebassett Joshua Stamper's album demanded my attention in its intentionality, movement, and creativity. I found myself surprised and awed by the way his interweaving readers interacted with his music, creating such a complex, transformative conversation. Joshua Stamper's album embraces paradoxical elements and emotions without fear or apology, leading the listener to a far more expansive experience of music, beauty, conversation, humanity, and life itself. Favorite track: Stations: From Whence Your Comfort Draw.
Moses DeHart
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Moses DeHart Joshua Stamper's Prime Mover is an earthen journey into the cosmic passion narrative. One of my favorite tracks is "stations: from whence your comfort draw". The reading of the psalm at the beginning is beyond stunning. The reader's voice is beautiful, poignent. The conterpoint that follows is delicious. Track seven's crackling fire is tense and soul-searching; Josh's composition forces the listener to sit and suffer with the disciple, wondering "is it I?" Favorite track: Stations: From Whence Your Comfort Draw.
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    Download includes deluxe 11-page digital booklet of original artwork by Lisa Abaya, lyrics, and more.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Order includes immediate digital download of PRIMEMOVER with a deluxe 11-page digital booklet of original artwork by Lisa Abaya, lyrics, and more.

    Deluxe Limited Edition Vinyl Double Album: Gatefold, tip-on jacket; full color lyric sleeves;180g; matte finish; foil stamp numbering.

    Pressed by Gotta Groove Records.

    Includes unlimited streaming of PRIMEMOVER via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
2.
Held 06:51
glass these threaded stones woven stitched with heat and felted fast by cooling to hold trios of molecules this morning poured into my body shell this floating home I climb spiral stairs to wall and door and floor and breezeways these rooms of calcium carbonate this morning's hold cradles my body Fall into place As air into the lung Fall into place a river to the sea Put me in my place As a kite that skates the wind the tree is moving river of light and leaf this morning's net to catch my body Fall into place You catch my body Fall into place As air into the lung Fall into place You catch my body Fall into place A river to the sea Fall into place You catch my body Fall into place As a kite that skates the wind Fall into place You catch my body Fall into place
3.
4.
Cumulonimbus 01:11
5.
Texts spoken by different parties in the week leading up to Jesus’ death. Words of prayer, cursing, praise, fury, hope, despair - from disciples, politicians, priests, crowds, soldiers, the curious. Everyone is speaking but Jesus.
6.
Hail, King! Hail, King! Hail, King! Greetings! Good health! Peace! Long life to you, O King!
7.
Two columns of spoken text are interleaved with one another. All texts are the words of Peter, either from the Gospel accounts or from his own letters. Both columns end with the same question: “To whom shall we go?” From the vantage point of love, this is a statement of devotion. From the vantage point of denial, it's a cry of despair. A third column of text is the soprano, playing the role of the morning rooster crowing twice, observing Peter. PETER: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born anew to a living hope. To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life... Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you. Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you. I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. It is good that we are here. It is good that we are here. You are the Holy One of God. Lord, to whom shall we go? DENIAL I do not know him. I do not know or understand what you are talking about. I never laid eyes on this man you’re talking about. I am not. I do not know the man. I do not know the man. To whom shall we go? Lord, to whom shall we go? ...to whom shall we go? ROOSTER: Where will you go? Where will, where will you go? Where will you go? Where will you go? Oh where? Where can you go? Where can you go? Where can, where can you go?
8.
9.
spoken: The LORD answer you in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary, and give you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices. May he grant you your heart's desire, and fulfill all your plans. May we shout for joy over your victory, and in the name of our God set up our banners. May the LORD fulfill all your petitions. Now I know that the LORD will help his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with mighty victories by his right hand. Some boast of chariots, and some of horses; but we boast of the name of the LORD our God. They will collapse and fall; but we shall rise and stand upright. Give victory to the king, O LORD; answer us when we call. sung: It is finished. It is finished. Into your hands, In your hands, in your hands, my spirit.
10.
Altostratus 01:12
11.
(from ‘O Emmanuel’ by Malcolm Guite) Make a womb of all this wounded world, Make a womb of all this wounded world, and make a womb of all this wounded world. Come to be born, to bear us to our birth Make these rags of time Our swaddling bands O hidden spring of light, Come to us Wisdom, Come unspoken Name, Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame, O quickened little wick so tightly curled Be folded with us into time and place, Unfold for us the mystery of grace. Make a womb of all this wounded world, Make a womb of all this wounded world, and make a womb of all this wounded world.
12.
13.
14.
Lenticular 01:24
15.
16.
17.
Mammatus 02:04
18.
PRIMEMOVER 06:31
19.
Contrails 01:09

about

"Hauntingly beautiful in its aleatory, spoken, sung, and instrumental complexity. Over the entire opus there seems to hang a feeling of simultaneous joyful yearning and yet also melancholy—paradoxically earthy and at the same time mysterious and aethereal. The contradictory nature of human aspiration is everywhere heard––in and through the Passion––reaching and denying, full of uncertainty and anxiety and simultaneous hope and faith. Each piece of PRIMEMOVER has its own character and distinct aura—and yet there is a deep unity to the entire collection, where we encounter recitation of Scripture, improvisatory scat singing, and textured instrumental all in a deeply moving emotional landscape". – Bruce Herman, Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts, Gordon College


"Joshua Stamper has always had a way of comforting and upsetting me with his music. It isn't only a matter of honesty with his emotions and of rock-solid technique in handling material. He has that, but there's more. He has an urgent desire to take me along on his journey, and I always find myself willing to accompany him—more than happy to go along. His works, and his surprisingly apt orchestrations, are winsome, and by that I mean they charm me without ever trying to be charming. It's a gift that few have." – Kile Smith, composer: The Arc in The Sky, The Consolation of Apollo


"Breathtaking. [...] It’s transcendent in a way that it soothes no matter your spiritual persuasion." - John Vettese, The Key - WXPN


"PRIMEMOVER increases one's capacity for wonder. In the company of his terrific ensemble Stamper employs an eclectic range of instrumental textures and stylistic languages to illuminate the beauty and mystery of both sacred narratives and clouds (and makes their mutual resonance feel inevitable!) I've followed his work for a long while now, so I wasn't surprised to find the whole thing reeking of intellect and integrity, honesty and humility, or to find the glow of so many benevolent ear-lightning bugs lingering long afterward." – Kris Allen, composer, woodwinds: Beloved, Circle House (Truth Revolution Recording Collective); Lyell B. Clay Artist Artist-In-Residence/Lecturer in Music, Williams College


"PRIMEMOVER offers a poignantly contemplative integration of chamber music and jazz that invites the listener into a kind of thin space where embodied awe and encounter with the divine come easily. Rooted in the church calendar, this elegant, skillfully executed mosaic of sound engages the wonder, lament, celebration, and anticipation of the liturgical seasons in brave, tender, and freshly perceptive ways. Undergirding this sonic experience is an ongoing interplay between holy restlessness and understated solace. The range of this music’s emotive quality is vast and masterfully curated, with a spaciousness that holds, that buoys. At times, the tone is wistfully pensive; at times, it swells with a haunting perplexity that draws deep. Always, it is honest, textured, rich. A theological sound poem, PRIMEMOVER is soul-nudging and immersive. It evokes the beautiful confusion of what it means to be alive, insisting, ultimately, on a courageous, existential delight." – Abigail Carroll, arts pastor, poet: Habitation of Wonder; A Gathering of Larks: Letters to St. Francis from a Modern-Day Pilgrim.


"PRIMEMOVER is at the same time surprising, comforting, winsome, unpredictable, and deeply affecting. Enjoy with or without headphones." – Jens Bjornkjaer, film composer: Vivos, 7 Years of Lukas Graham, Melancholia


"Listening to Stamper’s work proves to be an exercise in theology as much as musicology. [...] Stamper’s compositions draw us into complicated spaces, questioning the tone of our meditations or the relationship between metaphysical ideas." - Justin Cober-Lake, Dusted Magazine


"Joshua Stamper manages to draw distinctly from his classical, jazz, and rock background to create music that is remarkably cohesive and forward-thinking. His long list of collaborators on PRIMEMOVER range from members of the classical and jazz cognoscenti to members of visionary rock bands such as the Dirty Projectors and Cuddle Magic to a noted lexicographer and, yet, the music sounds remarkably personal and has Stamper's sonic imprint all over it. This is engaging music that draws from a deep well of musical resources and is all the better for it." – Nick Millevoi: guitarist/composer, Desertion Trio; music writer / editor


"A fantastically ambitious, rich musical world chock-full of complexity and nuance and a delicate balance between a directness of ideas and an expansiveness of tones and colors. Stamper’s writing showcases the formidable depth and range of his musicians' abilities, and consistently engages and challenges. Moving and poignant, PRIMEMOVER is wonderfully stylistically fluid music, skillfully performed, and deserves to be heard." – Aaron Irwin, composer, woodwinds: Music for Sextet, A Room Forever, Ordinary Lives

credits

released May 23, 2021

ABOUT

PRIMEMOVER is a collection of chamber works commissioned by City Church Philadelphia (now Resurrection Philadelphia) from 2015 to 2021, written for services marking holidays in the church calendar: Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, and Advent.

These pieces are a meditation on the Divine benediction over our corporeal world: a holy and inviolable endorsement of earth, skin, hair, blood and bones; the trees and clouds of sparrows; light and leaves and sound; the cities and the mountains. It is good.

Yet what is physical is also unavoidably ephemeral: it is a stubborn impermanence, a continual fading. From this frailty, this forever-fleeting, emerges a curious paradox. Just as water molecules cling to dust particles, borne upward by winds and jet streams to create towers hanging in the sky, the Scriptures suggest that our dustness is precisely what makes the image of an unseeable God seeable. Our bodies become the avenue through which an ineffable grace is dispersed and dispensed. The physical becomes the window into the metaphysical.

But the Prime Mover is not limited by linearity or confined to the upper atmosphere. We, the earth-bound, are held by the hovering One, who has bounded into our wounded world and unbound us from our own trajectory. Form interprets space, and the abstract is made concrete. Touch and sight become one and the same. We are invited to run and rest in the particular, to be acclimatized to a new space. Born anew to a living hope, this light, this earth, this sound, skin, heat, water—it is the vocabulary of the Maker and the grammar of our making. The Prime Mover sets all other things in motion, and humankind is launched and sent streaking across the sky.

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Dedicated to Tuck and Stacy Bartholomew for their expansive hospitality to the artist community in Philadelphia.

Of all the gifts given, freedom and trust have been the most profound. Thank you. Go with God. Fall into place.


Kristin Slipp – voice
Kate Ambacher – flute; alto flute
Sam Sadigursky – clarinet; bass clarinet
Mike Cemprola – alto saxophone; tenor saxophone
Cole Kamen-Green – trumpet
Paul Arbogast – trombone
David Danel – violin
Min-Young Kim – violin
Tom Kraines – cello
Bethany Danel Brooks – piano
Carlos Pacheco – vibraphone
Christopher McDonald – Rhodes, Juno; Mellotron; piano
Joshua Stamper – guitar; double bass; electric bass
Matt Scarano – drums; percussion
Marilynne Robinson – lead reader
Rowan Williams – lead reader
Malcolm Guite – lead reader
Esuga Abaya – reader
Bethany Danel Brooks – reader
David Danel – reader
Cyndi Parker – reader
Kory Stamper – reader

Composed by Joshua Stamper

Engineered by Milan Cimfe, Cole Kamen-Green, Christopher McDonald, Jeremy McDonald, Ryan Kelly, Carlos Pacheco, Matthew Poirer, Kristin Slipp, Joshua Stamper

Mixed by Matthew Poirer

Mastered by Ryan Streber at Octaven Audio

Artwork by Lisa Abaya
Design by Frances Elicker

PRIMEMOVER was made possible through a grant from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, and by the generous support of Resurrection Philadelphia.

'O Come, O Come, O Hidden Spring of Light': text used by permission of Malcolm Guite. © 2012 Malcolm Guite

© and ℗ 2021 Joshua Stamper

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