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Oracle Hysterical is a quintet of composers and performers making “music that is unstuck in time” (Wall Street Journal). Half band, half book club, the group has created hip-hoperas, art-rock song cycles, rap cantatas, and other genre-bending works that adapt great works of literature into song. Oracle works with Baroque, Orchestral, Electronic, and Folk ensembles and styles in order to craft a unique sound palette for each project. They've written for and performed with artists such as A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, New Vintage Baroque, Metropolis Ensemble, and Jason Treuting of So Percussion. In 2017 they released the “Beatlesesque” (Steve Smith) Passionate Pilgrim on VIA Records and in 2018 will release Hecuba on Sawdust Tracks.
Oracle Hysterical is Doug Balliett, Brad Balliett, Majel Connery, Elliot Cole, Dylan Greene
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Oracle Hysterical a collective of composers and performers: twin brothers Doug Balliett ( double bass, viola da gamba ) and Brad Balliett ( bassoons ), Majel Connery ( vocals ), Elliot Cole ( vocals, harmonium ), and Dylan Greene ( percussion ). Half band, half book club, Oracle combines eclectic musical influences with literary breadth, adapting great works of literature through the medium of song. The group has created hip-hoperas, art-rock song cycles, rap cantatas, and other genre-bending works all over America and Europe, collaborating with a variety of ensembles to cultivate a unique sound palette for each project.
This past year, Oracle dropped Baroque pop album, Passionate Pilgrim on Naxos/Vision into Art ( VIA ). Called “music that is unstuck in time” by the Wall Street Journal, Passionate Pilgrim weaves “Beatlesesque” ( Steve Smith ) tunes with discredited Shakespearean poetry, in a collaboration with period ensemble, New Vintage Baroque. The group’s sophomore album, Hecuba, releases on Naxos/Vision into Art ( VIA ) in May 2018. Hecuba is a live concert, and an art-rock concept album based on Euripides’ tragedy of the same name. Other current projects include The Sea, a symphonic song cycle commissioned by Grammy-nominated ensemble, A Far Cry, called “a globe-trotting sonic adventure” by the Boston Globe. Adapted from “The Sea” issue of literary journal, Lapham's Quarterly, the project debuted at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, 2016. Other ongoing Oracle projects include Cleopatra with the Metropolis Ensemble, and Grimms’ Fairy Tales with New Vintage Baroque. Oracle has appeared at the MATA Festival, the Berkshire Fringe Festival, The Stone, Le poisson rouge, National Sawdust, and at the Lucerne Festival Academy, where they were Spotlight Artists in 2011.
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