Meditations on Crime is the heavy-hitting, collaborative multimedia project which consists of an album and art book produced, co-written, and co-curated by Harper Simon. The album includes a sweeping range of contributors including Julia Holter alongside members of Pixies, indefinable 4AD sound manipulators Gang Gang Dance, fabled, afro-futurist ensemble Sun Ra Arkestra with King Khan, Geneva Jacuzzi, and more. Now comes the new single “Death” by Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux, which was released alongside a video that displays a mix of artwork from the book.

Simon shares, “I wrote the music and put down the guitar live with Paz Lenchantin on bass and Carla Azar on drums at Rob Schnapf’s studio in Eagle Rock. I had sent Jen the demo to write over. She came in and gave us a few really good takes of the song in her Royal Trux satin jacket and hair in front of her face. We all felt the authenticity in her delivery. The lyrics seemed to be about something nasty that had occurred between a man and a woman. I didn’t ask her too much about it.”

The Meditations on Crime book forms a heavyweight companion piece to the eclectic nine-track album, adding Cindy Sherman, Nate Lowman, Julian Schnabel, and Laurie Anderson and more to the range of image-makers and Miranda July, Hooman Majd, Jerry Stahl, and MC5’s Wayne Kramer to an enviable list of essayists. Renowned for creating classic Black Flag and Sonic Youth album covers, the project also features American artist Raymond Pettibon, both within the folds of the book release but also in the original portrait of John Dillinger, specially commissioned to adorn the first Meditations on Crime album cover.  

The album is released via AntiFragile Music while the book is published by Boo-Hooray and Bunker Basement, released with Hat and Beard Press/Ingram, and edited by Johan Kugelberg and Jonah Freeman, who also acted as co-curator.

The genesis of Meditations on Crime came in 2016 as the confluence of several ideas: the pop culture obsession with true crime, the incredible legacy of murder ballads and political protest songs as well as what America was going through during that particular election year. Simon was interested in collaborating with musicians he knew and admired, to create a vinyl LP with an accompanying book. The project is already expanding into other areas, as Harper Simon and Jonah Freeman are completing a short film based on Booker Prize winning novelist Ben Okri’s essay, narrated by actress Katherine Waterston. Details on art shows and benefit concerts coming soon.