James McGowan Ensemble Premiere Live Video for “Battle for the Thread of Life”/“Alone in the Dark”

Music videos tend to follow a fairly familiar formula, but the James McGowan Ensemble is bucking that trend today with the premiere of their “Battle for the Thread of Life”/“Alone in the Dark” video clip, which we premiere today. It’s more of a live performance video, but not just people playing their instruments, but also some elaborate, choreographed dancing in addition.

It features a whole ensemble and theatre troupe, a collaboration with KingDom Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario. Directed by Ekaterina Vetrov and starring up-and-coming Canadian actress Lesana Yatsenko, the purpose was to combine live performance with studio-recorded music to really bring it to life. It’s all brought together under the supervision and vision of James McGowan himself.

With some comments on the songs and the video, McGowan states:

“The scene (‘Battle for the Thread of Life’) took about a year of careful development between the music and the youth actors in a back-and-forth process. They started with choreography to tell the story, then came the music to match the movement and narrative, and finally, the physical theatre actors reworked the scene to match the music.

“The music features a high-energy jazz-rock fugue (a classical counterpoint technique) to capture the chaos of individual lives interweaving with each other. This is followed by the emotional intensity of a single figure trapped and alone.

“The two songs go hand-in-hand to capture the emotional extremes of collective chaos to imprisoned loneliness.

“In composing this music, I felt the story and choreography needed the intense music of a jazz-rock fugue followed by a chamber-music ostinato to capture the emotional range of collective chaos to imprisoned loneliness.”

James McGowan Ensemble ‘Threads of Fate’ album artwork

Both songs are contained on the new James McGowan Ensemble album Threads of Fate, released earlier this month. This is McGowan’s tenth record as a band leader and the third to feature this specific ensemble. It features an amazing 14 members, combining horns, strings, and a rhythm section. The album dives deeper into dramatic storytelling via the collaboration with KingDom Theatre that explores a contemporary telling of the tale of the three Goddesses of Fate from Greek mythology.

Musically, McGowan wanted to bring together an ensemble that could sound like classical string chamber music in one instance, and then orchestral in the next. Musically, Threads of Fate features a jazz-rock fusion sound, ameliorated by classical style sensibilities. It is intentionally diverse, creating a sound that is unmistakably McGowan’s own. With this being his third album with this album, McGowan felt comfortable taking more musical risks. This is another monumental step forward in the long, illustrious career of one of today’s premier band leaders.

Threads of Fate Track Listing:

1. Threads of Fate
2. On Your Own
3. Lost in the Labyrinth
4. Goddesses of Fate
5. Battle for the Thread of Life
6. Alone in the Dark
7. Second Chance
8. Temptation
9. Illusion of Love
10. Obedience or Freedom
11. Acceptance of Fate
12. People Pleaser
13. Protagonist Tango
14. Fight Amongst Ourselves
15. Marionettes
16. Soliloquy
17. The Minotaur – Revolution
18. Strength in Community