Dynamic Maximum Tension

Composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue and his Secret Society ensemble make their Nonesuch Records debut withDynamic Maximum Tensionon September 8, 2023. The album pays homage to some of Argue's key influences with original songs dedicated to R. Buckminster Fuller, Alan Turing, and Mae West. Fellow Nonesuch artist Cécile McLorin Salvant, with whom Argue collaborated on her long-form musical fableOgresse, joins the ensemble for Mae West: Advice.Dynamic Maximum Tension's eleven tracks, on two CDs, also include a response to Duke Ellington's Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, titled Tensile Curves, among other original songs. Argue says of his inspiration for the music: It feels like our culture today is headed in a profoundly dystopian direction. By engaging with figures like Buckminster Fuller, Alan Turing, and Mae West, I was trying to connect to a more optimistic time, trying to reclaim a sense of agency, trying to rekindle my faith in our ability to grab the future and shape it ourselves.