Eastman’s Feminine

Julius Eastman was a composer, pianist, singer, and provocateur who rejected rigid artistic and social boundaries. Black, gay, and unapologetically radical, he infused minimalism with raw energy, improvisation, and the pulse of Black American music. His 1974 work Femenine, which spent decades in obscurity before its recent reemergence, embodies his vision of music as alive, communal, and ever-changing.

Premiered by Eastman and the S.E.M. Ensemble in Albany, Femenine unfolds over more than an hour, built from a hypnotic vibraphone ostinato that pulses throughout. The work grows gradually, layering syncopation and shifting textures, evolving into something both ecstatic and deeply introspective. Eastman referred to his process as “organic music”—a structure where ideas expand, contract, and transform over time, resisting strict formality.

Eastman’s music was almost lost to history, scattered after his eviction in the 1980s. Today, Femenine stands as a vital document of his brilliance—a work that, like its creator, refuses confinement. As sleigh bells shimmer and melodies emerge and dissolve, the piece invites listeners into Eastman’s world: a space of freedom, urgency, and boundless possibility.