Andrea Keller: Flicker & Polar Bird

Andrea Keller's recorded output is bold, original and engaging; this recent album is no exception. Flicker & Polar Bird is a double album and her twenty-third release as a leader. The album is the result of her time as the Coombs Creative Arts Fellow in 2022 and also features various commissions undertaken between 2010 and 2022. Keller is one of Australia's finest pianists, composers and arrangers, winning numerous prestigious awards and widespread recognition. She is an active educator in many of Australia's premier educational institutions.

The first disk, Flicker, has a deliciously melancholic feel. Not one of weighty sadness but the pleasant melancholia of Shakespeare: 'A melancholia of mine own...a sundry rumination of my travels.' Flicker is just that, as Keller reflects and reimagines older works and places them alongside new compositions. Composers like Keller arouse deep emotions in a listener, aided by her pianistic minimalism and the judicious use of open sonic textures. The relationship between the pieces in these albums has been carefully considered, as with her choice of musicians. Completing the core trio is John Mackey, a superb tenor saxophonist and Miroslav Bukovsky, a trumpeter who appeared with Keller on The Komeda Project (Andrea Keller label 2016). Completing the complement of musicians are two six-piece string sections (from Canberra & Sydney) and two voices. The second disk, Polar Bird, features the voices of Rachel Toms and Liam Budge, reciting poems or prose or singing wordlessly. The addition of human voices is in keeping with the overall vibe, as they blend seamlessly into the mix. The vocalists here are instruments. Everything on this double album invites deep listening because the beauty of the playing and the quality of the compositions stir emotional responses. Anyone who follows Keller will know to expect originality and she does not disappoint here. This is improvised music that transcends genre, as with E.E. Cummings's poem, I am a little church.

All of Andrea Keller's albums are available on Bandcamp in digital, CD or vinyl formats @ https://andreakeller.bandcamp.com/album/flicker-polar-bird

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