Zack Rosen - 'Circles'

"A truly brilliant artist. Zack’s songs are astonishing and original. He had a peculiar, poetic, and playful mind." - Sean Ono Lennon

Profits from Zack's music will be donated to several non-profit mental-health organizations, including Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), and Treatment Advocacy Center. To support young musicians, Zack’s parents have endowed a music scholarship in Zack’s name at Wesleyan University, and established a fund that pays for teaching and performance opportunities for adjunct and visiting music faculty beyond their usual responsibilities. Zack's parents will also match and donate every dollar spent on downloads.

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Zachary Golub Rosen died by suicide May 18, 2019, at the age of 30, after suffering with schizophrenia and the effects of medications for the illness during the last years of his life. Zack grew up in upper Manhattan and was an exceptional self-taught guitar and bass player, writing instrumental music throughout his life until he started composing songs as a singer-songwriter in his twenties, many of them in the throes of his illness up until his death.

In 2018, Zack approached his friend Connor Grant (who plays under the name Tongues Unknown and is also a guitarist in Sean Ono Lennon’s band, The GOASTT) about producing his Syzygy project, which was largely unknown outside a small circle of friends and family beyond a handful of gigs at NYC venues. They were deep into their process at the time of Zack’s death, leaving Connor to comb through Zack’s home recordings, unearthing many that no one had heard except for Zack.

Zack fought his demons for years and unfortunately, the shame, stigma and fear of schizophrenia made him those to take on his battle alone. However, he was able to keep writing and performing right up until the end. There are glimpses of Zack’s internal struggle in the lyrics of some of his songs, but his creativity and gifts as a writer, an artist, and a man stretched far beyond the subject of his disease.

[adalbertosilva]

Came here thru Sean Lennon's instagram. Real Good!

[SweetREMs]

Such a beautiful writer <3 may his soul RIP and his musical frequencies ripple for eternity!
Shine on you BRIGHT diamond!!
Thank you for sharing!!

[awijmans]

Beautiful song. Great musician. Sad story of Zack 😢 Let his music speak 🙏

[wellesradio]

Jesus, he sounds like Elliott Smith. It’s haunting. I’m getting flashbacks.

[bensimonmusic]

Wow, this would be a great one to learn. Thanks for sharing it.

[WhiteOakAmps]

While any publisher of this song writer/composer's work is nearly forced by the sensible business ethics of an economy profiting from the demographic of the woke listener to donate to various organizations promoting mental health and suicide awareness, I think that what this artist needed, and those possible great artists like him still alive creating art, is more opportunities to play and collaborate with other open minded, non-judgemental musicians/artists, rather than funding for organizations dependent on the "mental illness" tag and the patient who can never get better or lose the "mentally ill/ schizophrenic" descriptor for their very financial survival. Isolation destroys these folks-- not time with others at the rehersal studio. I would almost even rather see an organization where these supposedly ill craftsmen, rather than being forced to sit with a well meaning social worker and talking in therapy, were instead given an opportunity to teach. Rather than increase the isolation and stigma with supposed recognition, find a safe way to expect them to teach a room of other musicians what they know according to the artist's own specification. This is a tragic loss.