Moral Monsters by Joel St. Julien

I'm terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country. These people have deluded themselves for so long that they really don't think I'm human. I base this on their conduct, not on what they say. And this means that they have become, in themselves, moral monsters. - James Baldwin

Joel has created a sonic spiritual world to walk through the many experiences of Blackness – to walk into your worst nightmare and come through it, changed.. His latest release, “Moral Monsters” is a tale of regeneration. Floating and extended, watching your life surrounded by burning crosses to only fall into the refrain of “New Truth” singing, “We grow.” This is a ritual, a sacred space.

“Art is the only way I can make sense of this world and usually the only way I can respond to what’s going on. I, along with most Black Americans, immediately see ourselves when we see our people being murdered, abused, and traumatized over and over again. It skews our vision – it is exhausting to continually be gaslit when all of the information is available to understand our struggle. Yet we are not a monolith – especially as artists. My inspiration comes from contemporaries like Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Zachary James Watkins, Jlin, Actress – artists who take space beyond the artistic restraints we are pigeonholed in.” The title track is a live recording of St. Julien’s performance at the 20th San Francisco Music Festival last fall. The rest are new songs built from audio visual experiments posted on his Instagram account. This album is part lamentation, part reflection, and part hope for the future.

Joel St. Julien is a Haitian-American composer, musician, songwriter, and sound artist based in San Francisco. Joel has written music for documentaries, short / feature films, podcasts, and dance. He is a firm believer in experimentation/fusion with acoustic and electronic elements in sound oscillating through escapism and the mysticism of the present tense.

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