Jessica Pavone - Brick & Mortar [CD]

This album celebrates the first release from Jessica Pavone's newest incarnation for string ensemble, which features two violins and two violas. Brick and Mortar, to released on Birdwatcher Records on October 8th, 2019, is her first body of string ensemble music since pausing to focus on writing for solo viola for the last six years. Her earlier work for string quartet, which substituted a second violin for double bass was documented on her 2009 and 2012 releases from the Tzadik label; Songs of Synastry and Solitude and Hope Dawson is Missing, highlighted melody, narrative, and themes of undeniable truths. Upon completion, Pavone focused primarily on creating a new and unique voice on her instrument with her solo music resulting in three releases for solo viola; Knuckle Under, Silent Spills and In the Action. Pavone returned to composing for string ensembles in the spring of 2017 by forming the J.Pavone String Ensemble as an extension of the sonic discoveries of her solo music. As both an instrumentalist and composer, Pavone has regularly and thematically explored tactile experience in her compositions and performances. This is most notable in her solo viola music, where she performs indeterminate pieces that stem from years of concentrated long tone practice, my interest in repetition, song form, sympathetic vibration, and the physicality of playing my somewhat larger-than-comfortable instrument. Founded in 2017, The Jessica Pavone String Ensemble combines these two modalities as an ensemble she both compose for, and performs in as a violist. The group presents original compositions which expand on the themes of her solo work while also integrating a deeper understanding of the effects sound has on the listener. While these discoveries have been primarily instinctual, she plans to further study these principles more formally by gaining a better understanding of Cymatics.