Eclectic Musical Duo, Pelicanman, released a new preview from their upcoming 15-part Opera titled Planet Chernobyl, based on the real late-80s nuclear power plant disaster. Featuring the poetry work of Charles Plymell with his libretto reading, “Radioactive waves upon California shores, on our watch, in our blood. Oil spills, forever in our waters. Oh, brothers and sisters in a catastrophic universe, catastrophic man. Oh, brothers and sisters, catastrophic man.”

Plymell’s original drive and passion to create art surrounding this disaster was after reading Svetlana Alexievich’s Voices of Chernobyl. In a press release he explained, “I used to think Allen Ginsberg was ‘off’ with his nuclear power protests, his trying to stop trains full of nuclear waste and stuff. Back then I wasn’t behind Allen, but now I see how nuclear power can kill us all. After reading that book, I couldn’t rest.” 

Later getting acquainted with Pelicanman bassist, Mike Watt, Watt recalled picking up the first Chernobyl drafts and explained, “When I first saw it, there were 15 paragraphs,” Mike remembers. “They read like stanzas. Each one was its own little world and kind of like the solar system, like planets around the sun, they were all going around a single idea. I read the 15 stanzas that way, as a libretto, as a story. I saw themes through the whole piece and I wanted to put my bass to it. I let Charley’s words be the thing that informed me and my playing, and when I sent what I’d done to Petra I knew she’d make sure Charley’s [Charles Plymell] words would still be the focus. I knew it was something D. Boon would want to hear.”

The Libretto then was brought to the group’s vocalist, Petra Haden, who was assured by Watt that she would love the work. Arranging the opera in 2020, Haden explained, “When I got into it, it broke me open, Charley’s words and Mike’s bass. That combination pushed me to do the best I could with what I had at the time––which was GarageBand, my grandmother’s mandolin and my childhood violin.  I’ve always wanted to sound like I was in a choir or an orchestra. That’s why I love layering my voice, and layering strings. I wanted to express how Charley felt in making the connections between the accident and everything that’s come after, his reaction as a poet, his telling of how it all made him feel.”

The upcoming 15-part opera is set to release June 16th via Org Music and is currently available for pre-order on Record Store Day’s website.