Gearing up for the MMW concert on Thursday, November 12 we’ve been passing the Radiolarians III CD around the office. Almost everyone who has had the disk in their hands has been interested in the cover art. My super amazing pal Meredith did some research about the art and the object that inspired MMW. Gracing the cover of all three Radiolarians discs, the drawings taken from The Radiolarian Atlas of 1862 by Ernst Haeckel document the life cycle of a radiolarian, a type of single celled organism with a dazzlingly intricate exoskeleton.

Haeckel is credited with discovering and naming thousands of new species and popularizing the studies of Charles Darwin in Germany during the late 1800′s. You can learn a little more about the radiolarian here! 

Haeckel’s radiolarian drawings served as visual inspiration for MMW’s trilogy of disc’s which has reversed the ‘normal’ recording procedure: the songs were written, then toured on extensively, and then recorded at a later stage in their evolution.

Photo by G Slice.

In an interview with Glide magazine John Medeski commented “Radiolarians was a way for us to create new music all year, keeping the music fresh and keeping ourselves alive as a band as well… the whole point was to keep the improvisational aspect of the music alive. We wanted to stay in the moment.” Watch a trailer for “Fly In A Bottle” a feature DVD the band is releasing with Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Box Set scheduled for release at the end of November. 

Check out more photos of the trio playing live on the Medeski, Martin & Wood Flikr Group page. 

We can’t wait to see what they have in store for us. Is it Thursday  yet? 

Cheers, 

Brittany

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