Sybarite5
is a string quintet that here returns after a pandemic pause with a largely new lineup; the only remaining members from the original group are double bassist
Louis Levitt
and violinist
Sami Merdinian
. The group has been known for fresh programming in the past, but here, the members have outdone themselves with a program that proposes a new relationship between folk music and the avant-garde. These are traditions that have often been seen as polar opposites, but
Bartok
certainly did not see them that way. At the fulcrum of
's program are three pieces by the intriguing single-named composer
Komitas
, whose work grew from his investigations into Armenian folk music but was also shaped by his German training. That is not the end of the vernacular influence, however. The album opens with an arrangement of
Movement and Location
by the contemporary roots/bluegrass group
Punch Brothers
. Among these are avant-garde pieces, with one thoroughly electronic concept, in
Jackson Greenberg
's
Apartments
, that samples speech from New York's notorious news radio station WINS ("give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world"). Does it all hang together? That is up to the individual listener, but the question is an interesting and multi-faceted one, and
is to be commended for raising it. The group's playing has crack accuracy in a variety of idioms, and it is well supported by the engineering work of the always-interesting
Bright Shiny Things
label, working in the Oktaven Audio studio in upstate New York. ~ James Manheim