Documerica originally a multimedia concert presentation that premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2013, powerfully presented by the string quartet ETHEL and taking the same name as the 1972-77 Documerica project, in which the then newly formed Environmental Protection Agency asked 70 freelance photographers to travel the U.S. with the edict to capture their impressions of Americans interacting with their environments. These eight compositions, both original and commissioned by ETHEL provided the musical annotation to the backdrop of imagery and here stand alone brilliantly in this exuberant and visceral collection that indeed suggests the sprawl of this America with composers including Mary Ellen Childs, Grammy Award winning jazz drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr., Chickasaw Nation’s Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and James Kimo Williams contributing works that filtered through ETHEL’s inclusive ethos become a post modern 21st century classic.
