Tree Lines Album Release Press Page

ALBUM NOTES

Tree Lines is an ode to old-growth trees that consists of eleven short movements, each of which focuses on a different tree: Yew, Bristlecone, Oak, Foxtail, Cypress, Juniper, Jequitibá, Baobab, Cedar, Larch, and Sequoia. In Balch's words, "I suppose the only way I can approach trying to capture the idea of something that lives so long is to write something very short — the duration of my lived experience in relation to theirs."

Mouth Full of Ears features composer Sarah Goldfeather as both violinist and singer. The piece explores the temptation to repeat the hollow words one hears from others, and the importance of thinking freely and independently: "You chew on the words/and tell us what you hear/but it's hard to understand you/when your mouth is full of ears."

figment, written for Exceptet's debut concert, has, in Kerekes's words, "a very whimsical nature about it, which partly came from the lightheartedness of the group, but also the quirkiness of this particular combination of instruments. As a composer, I found it hard not to think of the instrumentation’s roots in Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. figment is a fantasy on the soul of this ensemble."

COMPOSER BIOS

Called “some kind of musical Thomas Edison – you can just hear her tinkering around in her workshop, putting together new sounds and textural ideas” (San Francisco Chronicle), Katherine Balch is a composer interested in found sounds, playfulness, intimate spaces, and natural processes. A recipient of the 2020/21 Rome Prize, Katherine’s music has been presented by leading ensembles and festivals including the New York Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, Musikfest Berlin, and Tanglewood. When not making or listening to music, she can be found hiking, cooking, or building windchimes. 

Sarah Goldfeather is a composer-performer whose works include pieces for pianist Timo Andres, ETHEL quartet, Contemporaneous, Alkemie, W4RP, and Exceptet. She also co-writes and performs music for the experimental pop band Goldfeather and is the co-founder and artistic director, and violinist for the seven-piece new music ensemble Exceptet. As a violinist, Sarah has appeared on Broadway, including holding the violin chair in Broadway’s Oklahoma! and has performed at Disney Hall, Lincoln Center, New Sounds on WNYC, and more. She received a 2023 Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and Goldfeather (the band) won the innova Recordings National Call for their album, Change.

The music of New York-based composer-pianist Paul Kerekes has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Da Capo Chamber Players, Mendelssohn-Orchesterakademie, Exceptet, New Morse Code, Music from Copland House, and other ensembles at Ordway Concert Hall, Merkin Hall, the Gewandhaus, (le) poisson rouge, Symphony Space, and National Sawdust. An award recipient from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, and American Composers Forum, his compositions and playing have been featured on NPR’s Performance Today, WQXR, and albums on New Amsterdam Records, Innova, New Focus, and Naxos labels. A graduate of Queens College and Yale School of Music, he teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, is a member of Contemporaneous, and is a co-founder of Invisible Anatomy and Grand Band, a piano sextet described by the NY Times as “a kind of new-music supergroup.”

Tree Lines was recorded and mixed by sound engineer Mike Tierney and mastered by Alan Silverman. It will release digitally on New Focus Recordings on January 17, 2025. A limited run of CDs will be available at exceptet.com.