Katy Jarzebowski
FEATHERS
The Heard Bird Publishing
FEATHERS, the new album from composer Katy Jarzebowski, takes listeners on a fantastic voyage through what Calvin Dotsey, writing about Walt Disney’s Fantasia, described as the “playground of the imagination that is the orchestra.”
Arising from her ballet THE THING WITH FEATHERS, a collaboration with choreographer Emily Adams, FEATHERS, according to Jarzebowski, is an ode to “the dormant eight-year-old inside every adult who still believes glass can sing and a flock of strings can sound like fireflies.”
Produced with two-time Grammy-nominated mastering engineer Judith Kirschner, the album was recorded at 96 kHz to capture the most minute textures, followed by being mixed by Skywalker Sound’s Brendan Byrnes and Peter Horner, with cover art by Brian Kinkley.
Encompassing six tracks, FEATHERS opens with the title track, a short, almost sci-fi-tinted tune, revealing emerging brass tones.
Initially oozing with light swooshing sounds, followed by hints of jazz and delightful, dancing colors that blend into frenetic layers, “FLOCKS” adds veneers of surfaces that flow into a gorgeously wistful violin. Shifting, the melody takes on darker colors and quasi-industrial percussion and ends on a delicious assemblage of joyful, Peter Pan-like textures.
“BEAKS” juxtaposes deep, burping brass tones against soft chiming accents supported by prancing pulses. There’s perhaps an elusive sense of melancholy inherent in this composition, a moody sensation you can’t quite put your finger on.
For some reason, “BONES” summons up the story of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, where the prophet speaks to the bones, which come together and take on life. You can hear the bones moving, clicking, and assuming connections in Jarzebowski’s wonderful composition.
A personal favorite because of its Grimm’s fairytale-like intro, “SONGS” unveils a hesitant flute atop shadowy groaning strings that assume wavering surfaces. An exquisite, piercing violin enters, adding soaring, plaintive hues over remote ringing tones.
“STORIES” ties the album off, rolling out on portentous, elegiac coloration that drifts into a lamenting violin accompanied by flickering articulations. As the melody adopts resonance and spilling buoyancy, the tune hums with vibrancy.
At once deliciously experimental and at times exuberant, FEATHERS is rife with wide-ranging, enchanting, emotional arcs. A work of genius.
