New video: Movement & Location by Sybarite5

Dropping today on 8 September is Movement & Location, the first single from Sybarite5’s upcoming album Collective Wisdom.

The quintet features three new members: Suliman Tekalli, violin; Caeli Smith, viola; and Laura Andrade, cello, who join original members Louis Levitt on double bass and Sami Merdinian on violin.  

’Inspired by the music of the Punch Brothers, and the words of Chris Thile, Sybarite5 wanted to explore the relations between striving for the focused journey in everyday musical practice and our relationships through space and time,’ the ensemble told The Strad.

’Oftentimes we find new paths and directions that are unexpected once we start a journey. Louis [Levitt] made the video while abroad in France (which for some reason has Japanese Manga stores everywhere in Paris nowadays,) and he thought it would be interesting to explore a video in the style of Japanese Animé and bring it into the chamber music realm to see where it took him.’

Mandolinist of the Punch Brothers Chris Thile writes that this song is about the retired baseball player Greg Maddux, who was obsessed with his movement and location during pitching. Thile feels that it relates to ’living and relationships’ as well.

Collective Wisdom will be released on 20 October 2023 on the Bright Shiny Things label, the ensemble’s first studio album in five years. ’The music on Collective Wisdom has given us the opportunity to explore new things, and dig deep into works which require virtuosity, creativity, and vulnerability,’ says founding bassist Levitt. The album features improvisations, electronics, and world premiere commissions by Pulitzer Prize finalist, Michael Gilbertson; composers Jackson Greenberg, Jessica Meyer, and Curtis Stewart, as well as arrangements.

Photo credit Shervin Lainez

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