Eileen Myles and Cole Pulice on Their Serendipitous ‘Transa’ Collaboration With Hunter Schafer
The iconoclastic writer and ambient saxophonist talk about all the little miracles that went into their remarkable piece “Under the Shadow of Another Moon.”
Across 46 songs and more than 100 artists, the expansive benefit compilation Transa was made to support trans rights—a cause that is more urgent than ever. But it is not a polemic as much as a meditation and a reinforcement of simple humanity. The album carefully guides listeners through stages of gender exploration and acceptance. Created by the longrunning activist music nonprofit Red Hot, Transa is broken up into eight chapters, including “Survival,” “Awakening,” and “Reinvention.” “Under the Shadow of Another Moon” opens the “Dark Night” section; amid nearly four hours of music, it is the project’s undeniable emotional centerpiece.
The track is a collaboration between the electroacoustic saxophonist and composer Cole Pulice, the literary heavyweight Eileen Myles, and the actress Hunter Schafer. Pulice’s layers of sax set the contemplative mood; Myles’ words gesture at an immense yearning, perhaps a chasm between two people, or between what was and what is; Schafer recites those words as if she’s reading an intensely private diary entry, on the verge of tears, her voice soft and wobbly. The three elements of the piece are powerful on their own, but together the effect is staggering. Almost too much to bear. It’s the single most heartrending piece of music I’ve heard this year.
