To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, composer Steve Reich is releasing an album fittingly called WTC 9/11, recorded with the Kronos Quartet. According to Nonesuch records, the composition also features recordings of voices belonging to NORAD air traffic controllers, "as they raised the alert that the airplanes were off course; FDNY workers on the scene... and women who kept vigil, or Shmira, over the dead in a tent outside the Medical Examiner's office." (The voices are "elongated in a stop-motion sound technique.") Yesterday the album's cover was released; as you can see here, it's a pretty literal representation of Reich's themes, but it strikes some as tasteless.
"No photo necessary with a title like 'WTC 9/11.' A typographic solution could have been far more powerful," declares Paul Soulellis on Twitter. Caleb Burhans tweets simply, "Dude, really?" Critic Seth Colter Walls opines, "NYC deserves better, and so does the piece." But on the other hand R.D. Burlingame says, "Powerful. Can not wait. Wish I could've seen this live!"—referring, we hope, to the composition, not the events of 9/11.
Reich, for his part, explains that he and his family lived only four blocks away from the site of the tragedy: "On 9/11 we were in Vermont, but our son, granddaughter, and daughter-in-law were all in our apartment. Our phone connection stayed open for six hours and our next-door neighbors were finally able to drive north out of the city with their family and ours. For us, 9/11 was not a media event."
The cover isn't in the same league as The Coup's infamous Party Music album, which was designed in June 2001 but presciently featured the World Trade Center towers burning. Nevertheless, the image obviously is a sensitive one for many people. Though we'll never forget, one wonders if/when we'll reach a point where an artist can use imagery from 9/11 without offending people (and getting the free advertising).
