The Kukuruz Quartet was first seen and heard making their contribution to a production at the Zurich Schauspielhaus. Kukuruz was engaged with notated classical music, advanced new music, with jazz and improvisation. 2014 Kukuruz started their involvement with Julius Eastman and his musical works. In 2017, their performance at documenta 14 in the Megaro Mousikis concert hall in Athens earned a standing ovation. They performed works by Julius Eastman: 'Evil Nigger', 'Gay Guerrilla', 'Buddha' and 'Fugue No. 7'. The recording of these compositions followed in November 2017 on four Steinway D pianos in the main hall of the historic Radiostudio Zürich.
Composer, trombonist and scholar George E. Lewis, who knew Eastman personally and played with him, writes in the liner notes: „This brilliant recording by the Kukuruz Quartet constitutes an important new contribution to the growing cor- pus of performances of music by the composer, pianist, and singer Julius Eastman (1940-1990), who came to prominence in the experimental music scene of the 1970s and 1980s ... On this recording, the Kukuruz Quartet renders Eastman’s spirit of adventure audible and sensuous, exemplifying a new, creolized formation of contemporary classical music that is able to embrace a multicultural, multi-ethnic usable past and thinkable future that can affirm our common humanity in the pursuit of new music.“

Graphic design: Jonas Schoder
Photos: Michelle Ettlin and Donald W. Burkhardt
Liner notes: George E. Lewis and Melinda Nadj Abonji

All compositions by Julius Eastman. Recorded November 29, 30, and December 1, 2017, by Michaela Wiesbeck at Radio Studio, Zürich. In cooperation with Radio SRF 2 Kultur. Mixed and mastered by Michaela Wiesbeck. Executive production: Florian Keller.