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Release Date: March 13, 2020
Catalog #: NV6275
Format: Digital & Physical

Epilogue

Zephyr Quartet
Belinda Gehlert violin
Emily Tulloch violin
Jason Thomas viola
Hilary Kleinig cello

Zephyr Quartet's new release, EPILOGUE, betrays expectations in the best manner possible. Listeners expecting to hear traditional (or even contemporary) classical music from this Australian string quartet will be in for a big surprise when they find tracks that resemble those of – wait for it – a great modern pop or rock group instead. But there is more: the immediate accessibility of their music almost instantly reveals a great depth, profundity and musical richness, to the point where it will find only few rivals in contemporary composition.

Far from being epigones of the Old, Zephyr Quartet manages to create a coherent, but nonetheless varied mix of pieces which highly encourage repeated listening. Perhaps most striking is the utmost homogeneity of EPILOGUE, considering that the individual pieces were composed by the individual members of the quartet, providing each ensemble member with the chance to express themselves. And yet, all these pieces fit together like pieces of the same big puzzle, indubitably a testament to the group's remarkable cohesion as such.

Unsurprisingly, but thankfully, this also naturally translates into the actual performance and interpretation. Great care is taken with every phrase, every measure, every note: there is no outshining one another, as one sometimes finds in less equally-weighted string quartets. There is never a struggle, only serene accordance and sublime understanding. EPILOGUE truly is a group effort, and it's a spectacle – one which impressively demonstrates that the whole is, in fact, a whole lot more than merely the sum of its individual parts.

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Hear the full album on YouTube

"One of this year’s most enjoyable albums"

Lucid Culture

Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Great White Bird Hilary Kleinig Zephyr Quartet 4:12
02 Femme fatale: I. Anne Boleyn Belinda Gehlert Zephyr Quartet 3:58
03 Femme fatale: II. Hedda Gabler Belinda Gehlert Zephyr Quartet 3:52
04 Femme fatale: III. Huldra Belinda Gehlert Zephyr Quartet 3:02
05 Cockatoos (Version for String Quartet) Hilary Kleinig Zephyr Quartet 4:29
06 Ecstatic Moments: II. Exquisite Peace Hilary Kleinig Zephyr Quartet 5:07
07 Blindfold Gift Emily Tulloch Zephyr Quartet 3:25
08 Our Lovely Star Emily Tulloch Zephyr Quartet 2:55
09 Mulysa Jason Thomas Zephyr Quartet 5:13
10 Time's Timeless Art Jason Thomas Zephyr Quartet 6:23
11 Epilogue Belinda Gehlert Zephyr Quartet 4:27

Recorded April 25, June 10, July 3 & 22, 2019 at Wizard Tone Studios in Adelaide, Australia
Engineered by James Brown & Jarrad Payne
Produced, edited & mixed by Peter Dowdall, except Exquisite Peace, mixed by Hilary Kleinig & Peter Dowdall

©2020 Zephyr Quartet. All rights reserved.

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Danielle Lewis

VP, Audio Production Jeff LeRoy
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
Mastering Shaun Michaud

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Sara Warner

Artist Information

Zephyr Quartet

Ensemble

Zephyr Quartet are Australia’s leading genre-defying explorers of dynamic cross-artform, music-focused collaborations. They are an award-winning string ensemble whose musicians compose, arrange, and improvise. This unique skill set, together with Zephyr’s open-minded approach, allows them to skillfully traverse musical worlds and gives them their own distinct voice.

Acknowledgements

We are truly grateful to all the people who have helped bring EPILOGUE into being: our Manager/Creative Producer and dear friend Jennifer Greer Holmes; Peter Dowdall for producing, editing, and mixing; James Brown and Jarrad Payne at Wizard Tone Studios; all the staff at PARMA Recordings; Flinders University; the Government of South Australia through Arts South Australia, the Music Development Office and Department for Innovation and Skills for their continued support of our work and this project; and our loved ones, families, friends, and supporters who make it all worthwhile.

Notes

Some things in life change and some things stay the same. The music on EPILOGUE, written between 2013-2019, comments on both sides of this dichotomy. The pieces respond to social, cultural, and political ideas of past and present times and their influences are wide-ranging: the power of music to connect all people regardless of language and cultural background; the poetry of fellow South Australian, Syd Harrex; notorious female figures; a song sung before white settlement in Australia; feelings of trepidation and joy, fragile peace, and time standing still; an observation that our departed loved ones are sleeping close by; and an attempt to seek simple beauty. These pieces and their stories have been a part of our lives for many years and we are thrilled to share this music. We hope it speaks to you.

— Zephyr Quartet

Great White Bird imagines the time in Australia before European settlement. It makes reference to ‘Susie’s Ship Song’ – a song sung by Susie, a Wirangu woman from Yardea on Eyre Peninsula, South Australia – which tells the story of a great white bird that came over the seas and was tethered to the bay so that it couldn’t get away. It is believed that the song was created in response to the tall ships of Mathew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin sailing into and anchoring in Denial Bay. Great White Bird honours and pays tribute to Australia’s first people, their stories and their land.

— Hilary Kleinig

I Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn was Henry the VIII’s second wife who was found guilty of high treason, adultery and witchcraft was subsequently beheaded. She was a significant figure in history for being the reason Henry VIII annulled his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and declared the English church's independence from Rome.

II Hedda Gabler
Inspired by State Theatre Company of South Australia’s production of the Henrik Ibsen play, I was struck by the beauty and tragedy of a female figure who is so devoid of passion for life that she plays with the fate of others to seek joy.

III Huldra
In Nordic tradition, a Huldra is an amorous forest spirit who lures men into her lair, rewarding those who satisfy her and killing those who don’t.

— Belinda Gehlert

The immense numbers and cacophonous, relentless sounds of cockatoos are such a uniquely Australian sight and sound! In writing Cockatoos I was inspired by the images in a poem by Syd Harrex to create structures and sounds in the music that echoed the sentiments within the poem, such as ‘flock in blade formation’, ‘scissor sun lagoons’, ‘scattered like mange in the fur of grass’, ‘shattered by a sea of brilliant flaws’, ‘eat with and ecstasy’, and ‘the moral writes the score’. I also wanted to celebrate their raucous jubilation and their ancient and ongoing presence in Australia.

— Hilary Kleinig

Exquisite Peace tries to capture in sound the essence of a moment of gratitude and stillness where I feel that everything is ok in my life, so perfect at this particular time: the rare, fragile beauty of this crystalline space, knowing that at any second reality, and all that it demands, might come crashing back through and the bittersweet knowledge that I never know when it will happen again.

— Hilary Kleinig

Blindfold Gift takes two themes written for a children’s theatre piece exploring birthdays, and especially the trepidation around social anxieties of birthday parties. The opening section tiptoes around this anxiety, with the feeling that perhaps something exciting lies hidden beneath the uncertainty, and then gives way to something more openly joyous.

— Emily Tulloch

“Our lovely star” is a short phrase, taken from a Hermann Hesse short story, which neatly and tenderly describes a planet or homeland. In a time of global struggle and pain, I consciously explored positive thoughts on the beauty to be found in life in this small-scale work.

— Emily Tulloch

This piece was inspired by a Christmas spent working in Australia's offshore processing centre in Nauru. Irrespective of their country of origin, all the asylum seekers came together to sing, dance, and play instruments, highlighting the transcendent power of music. The joy and hope witnessed in that moment was an incredible juxtaposition to the despair witnessed only moments earlier.

— Jason Thomas

Time's Timeless is a response to the poetry of Syd Harrex. Its creation centres on mindful observation of the sounds of the Australian outback. It becomes apparent that even the quietest moments in nature present delicate melodies.

— Jason Thomas

Inspired by a stanza of poetry in "An Epitaph of Words' Tears" by Iraqi poet, Yahia Al-Samawy about the death of his mother.

The layering of harmonies in this piece are inspired by the idea of dirt and soil being layered like sheets and blankets upon the departed while the sounds of bells tolling in the distance mark the leaving of a loved one.

The living sleep above the earth
And the dead beneath it…
So the difference between them
Is only the placement of the bed,
And the kinds of pillows and covers.

Yahia Al-Samawy

— Belinda Gehlert