Art Terry releases his climate CRIsis single:
Petroleum Milky Way
Release date: 15 September 2023
On 15 September, organisations across the word will march and strike to end fossil fuels. And Art Terry & the Black Bohemians will release their new single: Petroleum Milky Way.
Better known as an arthouse funk musician, Los Angeles-born Art Terry is also a climate activist. Art went to meet with Just Stop Oil not to join them, but to ask them what their positive message was, beyond the call to ‘just stop oil’. Entranced by the movement’s energy and commitment, and their core demand that we stop NEW oil and gas licensing, Art signed up with JSO.
Slow marching through the London streets, he listened as doctors, lawyers, students and seniors picked up the megaphone to appeal to motorists and passersby. The jeopardy of the experience affected Art deeply, as he and other protestors put their bodies on the line.
Petroleum Milky Way is a song infused with ambiguity and empathy, both for the protestors and for Londoners affected by slow marching. It is not a song with a fixed point of view: its sympathies shift. But it climaxes with a timely and heartfelt refrain on behalf of all of us: ‘no new gas, no new oil.’
Featuring the Black Bohemian gospel choir and violist Amirah de Bourg, and produced by long-time collaborator Raphael Mann, this is a song which brings an Afro-American sensibility to the protest song.
We are at a turning point in the earth’s history, with the Secretary General of the UN saying it is code red for humanity, and that we are on a highway to climate hell. Cometh the hour, cometh the song: Petroleum Milky Way calls on us all to ‘wake up, wake up.’
‘Petroleum Milky Way is in part about the allure and the addictive nature of oil. We all need our next fix. But if we don’t break the habit our beautiful world will continue to burn.’
Art Terry
‘Mirroring the brutal centuries of human enslavement and artefact pillaging of the African continent for financial gain, Shell Oil has, for the last 7 decades and in the eyes of the entire world, ruthlessly plumaged the delta of Nigeria, laying gigantic pipes across the land, destroying farms, the natural flora and the lives of its people. 7 decades and still the oil industry continues as if in the legacy of the slave masters, raping our land, killing the environment. 7 decades and still the oil industry finds it easier and of course cheaper to destroy our villages and to poison our fishing waters with the filth of their spillages.‘
Kayo Anosike, choir director
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For more information, email AltSoul Records or call +44(0)7939 470070.
Hear Art Terry & the Black Bohemians perform the song live in London September 17.
Read press quotes about Art Terry.
Click here for a pdf of this press release.
Credits
Art Terry - vocals, piano, hand claps
Kayo Anosike - vocals
Vedina Rose - vocals
BGBGB - vocals
NX Panther - vocals
Naomi Terry - vocals
Raphael Mann - bass guitar, tambourine, hand claps, production
Amirah De Bourg - viola