Storied activist and music production non-profit Red Hot released its latest project last fall, the acclaimed concept album, TRAИƧA. The historic release was announced last September with a cover of Prince’s iconic “I Would Die 4 U,” reenvisioned by Wendy & Lisa of The Revolution, and London-based singer Lauren Auder. They’ve also released an official music video for their euphoric cover, directed by James Ogram with choreography by Hannah Mason. On the visual, Auder shared “For such an intimate song, it really comes alive when you move to it. I wanted a simple backdrop, to let all my fosse-isms out, and sing the song to the viewer, face to face.“

Dust Reid, who led production on Red Hot’s 2014 tribute to Arthur Russell, and Massima Bell, an artist and activist based in Los Angeles, began tracing the contours of what would become TRAИƧA together in 2021. The two producers originally met at a video shoot in upstate New York, and immediately bonded over their shared love of Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music, as well as a common devotional connection to nature. The passing of SOPHIE, the pathbreaking electronic producer who died in January 2021, galvanized the producers and focused their work.

As they began inviting musicians to contribute to TRAИƧA, the political climate in the United States and across the world started to foment an acute reactionary streak. Legislation denying trans people the hard-won right to medically transition proliferated across the country. Book bans rained down on libraries, stamping shut crucial apertures into trans and queer lives. The necessity of TRAИƧA’s presence in the world started to crystallize.

“The stakes have never been higher,” notes Bell. “We’re seeing a rise in anti-trans hate and vitriol that is particularly being spewed in the United States. I am a trans person from Iowa, one of the states that signed into law a bill that prohibits access to gender-affirming care. It is clearly, materially, a terrifying time.”

TRAИƧA features artists from widely dispersed genres and generations, often working in collaboration on a mix of surprising covers and poignant original tracks. Bell and Reid worked from the dreams of the trans artists they invited to participate, pairing many of them with their heroes and inspirations. Trans and cis voices weave together throughout the record. Bill Callahan and Hand Habits harmonize on an acoustic cover of Kate Bush’s prescient 1989 track about falling in love with the internet, “Deeper Understanding,” while Claire Rousay teams with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to set a William Blake poem to music on “How Sweet I Roamed.” For “Pink Ponies,” electronic artist Yaeji joins singer-songwriter Teddy Geiger in a delicate reverie of a pop song, their voices intertwining among shuffling drums and twinkling keys. Moses Sumney grounds a cover of SOPHIE’s life-affirming composition “Is It Cold in the Water?” in a jazz setting, sending his falsetto arcing over gently strummed guitar chords and shivering cymbals. On one of the record’s most notable contributions, Sade performs an original song dedicated to her trans son, Izaak – a gesture of unconditional acceptance and love without boundary. (Sade agreed to participate in the project after Bell wrote her a personal letter thanking her for her longtime public support of her son.)