Alan Cohen, a graduate of High School South, Class of 2001, recently released “Revolutions,” a solo album recorded a few years ago. A member of Family Junction Band, he lives in Boston, where he owns and operates an audio and video production company, and focuses on his music. Cohen, who used acoustic guitars and an upright bass, did the string arrangements and performances.##M:[more]##
The concept for the album began when he noticed someone wearing a Che Guevara shirt. “I had been thinking about how pop culture has embraced certain revolutionaries as celebrity-type figures, seemingly without any understanding of why they are notable,” he says. “I realized that the concept of a revolution can take on many forms — historical, personality, and philosophical.”
The album touches on different types of revolutions including the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the biblical exodus from Egypt of the Hebrews. The personalities featured include Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara. One song, “The Digital Revolution,” is his personal meditation on how current technologies impact society.
The introduction and conclusion are two versions of the same song, a lullaby that uses imagery of massive bodies orbiting around in space to put things into a universal perspective. “The last line sums up my opinion on the matter of revolutions, that in the human existence they will always come and go, yet no matter how global a revolution is, the planets and stars will always be orbiting around, just as they have been doing for billions of years,” he says.
Throughout the album, there is an undercurrent of Ludditism, the philosophy that is anti-technology, born from artisans put out of work during the Industrial Revolution. Cohen, who found an old Luddite anthem, rewrote it into a folk song, and put as the last track.
He is a member of Family Junction Band. Visit www.alancohenexperience.com for information and free downloads.
