Jim James & Teddy Abrams The Order of Nature LP

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Jim James, acclaimed genre-bending solo artist, passionate social activist and leader of legendary rock band My Morning Jacket, and conductor/composer Teddy Abrams & The Louisville Orchestra announce the release of their collaborative project, The Order of Nature. As two of the world's most vibrant and versatile musicians, neither James nor Abrams shies away from a challenge, and with The Order of Nature they've crafted a large-scale symphonic suite that has James' evocative songs as its foundation. Abrams built a grand orchestral house on that foundation, and the result is an explosion of music that boldly synthesizes rock and classical while taking advantage of orchestral music's inherently cinematic nature. Featuring unreleased new songs from James as well as re-imaginings from his solo catalog, the album is released via Decca Gold.

Lyrically, James takes a deep dive into issues vitally important to him in recent years, including equality and intolerance, human connection and acceptance. Abrams uses repeating motifs to weave the songs into a seamless whole, with the goal of capturing the idea of nature in a cinematic way and turning James' quiet demos into a majestic tapestry that conveys the album's themes of politics, the natural order and the hopelessness of hatred. They all spin off of the suite's central theme, which is James' fascination with the absence of hate in nature. Animals kill each other, but only out of hunger, while humans daily choose hate --we ignore the order of nature and that choice is wreaking havoc.

"The core idea to me is trying to reflect on the fact that nature doesn't know how to hate," says James. "Humans are part of nature obviously, but why do we have this thing called hatred and how do we get rid of it? We're fighting nature and thinking we can prevail over nature, but we're killing each other and killing the planet."

Abrams spent months building a complex symphonic work in which the songs could breathe, writing music that captures both the quiet drama of walking alone through a snowy landscape and the urgency of trying to steer a disrupted society toward kindness.

"We're really looking at addressing things head on," says Abrams. "That was an interest of mine in working with Jim because he has a way of taking on challenging and divisive issues and presenting them in ways that everybody can relate to, even if you're from different political backgrounds."

One of rock's most powerful singers and one of its most fearless sonic architects.

The new Leonard Bernstein.