The Rhythm Method (self titled - GBR057)
Released March 11, 2022
The Rhythm Method’s self-titled debut album captures the heart of the ensemble by sharing the compositional voices of all four members, creating a portrait of the group that showcases their unique and thoughtful approach to the string quartet. This album is the result of years of collaboration, friendship, and trust, recorded after months of pandemic isolation, when live and in person music-making felt most precious.
Supporting one another is at the core of The Rhythm Method’s mission, both as performers and as composers and generative artists. In addition to feminist and socially conscious programming initiatives that showcase music both old and new, and commissioning new works from composers they admire, most of the group’s programs feature at least one work written by a quartet member. These compositional initiatives create a rare and special space to express and mutually nurture each group member’s creativity, and offer audiences a deeper window into the ensemble’s collective aesthetic.
The music of The Rhythm Method incorporates the traditional mix of two violins, viola, and cello along with each group member’s voice. The group’s work represents an unusual stylistic breadth, ranging freely from textural drones to avant-cabaret song, from meticulous systems to striking sonorities. As with all great groups, the diverse elements build cohesion, allowing listeners to experience a wide array of soundscapes and aesthetics within a carefully curated set.
The album opens with violinist Leah Asher’s Under the Guise, which explores resonance through the interplay of voices and instruments, coming together to form intricate and ever shifting textures. Violist Carrie Frey’s Gone/Back is an epic journey through harmonic progressions snipped from Chopin’s prelude in C minor, navigated with both gravity and playfulness in five movements of contrasting characters. Violinist Marina Kifferstein’s An Alien with Extraordinary Abilities is an effervescent work that reflects simultaneously on the vastness of the universe and the fastidious paperwork of an O-1 visa. Cellist Meaghan Burke’s Che si può fare? is a contemporary reimagining of the Venetian Baroque composer, singer, and cortigiana onesta (“honest courtesan”) Barbara Strozzi’s heart-wrenchingly beautiful aria, in which she asks “what is to be done” when fate seems to conspire against her, when “the rebel stars have no pity.” Interspersed between these works are “shadow” tracks, improvised interludes that reflect back on the sound worlds of each composition.
From its inception in 2014, The Rhythm Method has placed great value in creating a collaborative environment for generative art making, a safe and sacred space for experimentation and mutual support. Although the quartet has been featured on a number of albums by other artists, this is the quartet’s first self-produced album. In this debut recording, it felt important for the quartet’s members to put out a document that was representative of their original work, written for and developed alongside one another. This body of repertoire is in many ways the closest to the heart of the ensemble, and the most personal representation of The Rhythm Method’s identity.
Leah Asher, violin, vocals
Marina Kifferstein, violin, vocals
Carrie Frey, viola, vocals
Meaghan Burke, cello, vocals
Produced by The Rhythm Method and Bernd Klug
Recorded by Bernd Klug at 368 (Brooklyn, NY)
Mixed and mastered by Bernd Klug
Album art by Leah Asher
Gold Bolus Recordings // GBR057
www.goldbolus.com
Group Bio
Praised as “fierce, fearless, and virtuosic… unapologetically stylistically omnivorous and versatile” (New Music Box) and “trailblazing...skillful composer-performers” (The New Yorker), The Rhythm Method strives to reimagine the string quartet in a contemporary, feminist context. The four performer-composers of The Rhythm Method continually expand their sonic and expressive palette through the use of graphic notation, vocalization, improvisation, songwriting, and theater.
The Rhythm Method’s ongoing activities include the Hidden Mothers Project, a programming initiative that highlights works by historical women composers, and Broad Statements, an annual mini-festival celebrating creative music-making by women, non-binary, and gender-expansive people in a wide array of artistic styles.
