ARCHIVE

Live from New Ear Inc: Moons Album Release (Audio)

Nov 16, 2024

Live from New Ear Inc. at Fridman Gallery in New York City. MOONS is a quartet of composer/performers Judith Berkson (accordion/voice), Laura Cetilia (cello), Katie Porter (clarinet/bass clarinet), and Christine Tavolacci (flutes). This debut 4-track album was recorded at an artist residency at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, Utah, May 26-27, 2023.

Judith Berkson’s natural:neutral uses tuning to explore memory and perception, with scordatura creating harmonic intervals that feel both familiar and strange. Christine Tavolacci’s Scivias draws on Hildegard of Bingen’s divine visions, shared after overcoming patriarchal constraints. Katie Porter’s 18 Flowers in a Row features minimal scores, each “flower” lasting like a pop song, exploring impermanence. Laura Cetilia’s inside seconds focuses on minor and major seconds, creating subtle tonal shifts and dissonance, with performers entering and exiting based on personal timing. More information at https://new-ear.org/2024/10/22/moons-album-release/