Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, and now living in Baltimore, MD, Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez is a visual artist, writer, and musician who recently joined the Carpark Records roster. His first release, Why Is Bear Billowing?, appeared in 2009.
The 11 contributors to our 13th compilation CD were invited to turn one of the predictions of 16th-century astrologer Nostradamus into a brand-new song. Most scholars agree that his four-line prophesies (quatrains) are more poetic than prophetic, utilizing language that is oblique enough to support any number of different interpretations. The resulting tracks—some somber, some surprisingly buoyant—all celebrate that poetry, reveling in the ambiguity of their source material while allowing it to reverberate in a musical context.