Starry Night [CD]

SHHH!! Ensemble, the percussion-piano duo of Zac Pulak and Edana Higham, brings together a programme of beautiful and unexpected sounds inspired by the night sky and the vastness of space on their third album, Starry Night. Featuring newly commissioned works by Mari Alice Conrad, Paolo Griffin, Monica Pearce, and Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis alongside Vincent Ho's contemplative Nostalgia and Jocelyn Morlock's sparkling early composition Quoi?, the album moves between the immense forces of the universe and the intimate inner worlds of sleep, memory, and consciousness, exploring how dreams process emotions and memories and shape our evolving sense of self. Across the programme, Stafylakis, Griffin, and Conrad look outward to astronomical events, gravitational interactions, and the possibilities of peaceful exploration, while Pearce and Ho turn inward to examine emotional and psychological experience. Morlock's Quoi? brings an exuberant and light-hearted energy to the album. Bringing celestial motion to a human scale, Starry Night is dedicated to the memory of Jocelyn Morlock, who was, and continues to be, an inspiration and a brightly shining north star to many. Known for their distinctive 'avant-accessible' blend of the experimental and familiar and praised as 'truly virtuosic and intense' by Confluence Concerts and 'a beautiful discovery' by the Societe de musique?contemporaine?du Quebec, SHHH!! Ensemble has commissioned more than two dozen works and performed at festivals, concert series, and with orchestras across Canada. Their debut album, Meanwhile, was nominated for Classical Recording of the Year at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards, while An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene received two nominations at the 2025 East Coast Music Awards.