OWLS - Rare Birds - LP - Vinyl [NOV 7]

LP - Standard Edition Black Vinyl. 

Owls, the inverted string quartet hailed as a “dream group” by The New York Times, and whose original, visceral, and personal performances defy categorisation, announce their debut album, Rare Birds (out on March 14, 2025), via New Amsterdam Records. Owls’s all star lineup is comprised of world renowned soloists, as well as current and former members of yMusic, Aizuri Quartet, and Kronos Quartet: Alexi Kenney (violin), Ayane Kozasa (viola), Gabriel Cabezas (cello), and Paul Wiancko (cello). The album was produced by Grammy™-winner William Brittelle.

Rare Birds offers a new take on a seemingly familiar form, inverting the string quartet with two cellos instead of two violins, while incorporating a playful approach to repertoire curation. Existing as something between a live concert, a playlist, and an album of creative premieres, reinterpretations, and William Brittelle’s outside- the-box production, Rare Birds offers music imbued with creative energy in multiple directions. Vibrant double cellos build foundations for violin and viola to soar over, interwoven string parts flow through baroque harmonies, driving rhythms invite the listener to dance, and delicate textures transform into moments of rapturous joy. Owls’s unique instrumentation affords the ensemble the freedom to explore musical possibilities without the constraints of a traditional canon, resulting in an album that is as sonically distinctive as it is heartfelt.

Owls in their own words:

“Owls first gathered as a nameless pick-up group in 2019 with the intention of playing a single show in New York City. It only took a few notes for us to realize how special this group was: all four of us instinctively let each other feel and be exactly who we were, with an unspoken ease of communication, trust, and a joyful, raucous abandon in our music-making.

The lack of prewritten music for our “inverted quartet” configuration turned out to be liberating. We spent our first few days together in deep discovery mode, listening to recordings of all kinds, improvising, and creating on-the-fly arrangements of anything that intrigued us. Paul and Ayane’s Brooklyn apartment became a creative musical laboratory as we flitted between the Big Purple Box (a recording booth Paul built in the apartment’s living room) and our rehearsal space a few feet away.

Our guiding principle was simple: All four of us must completely love everything we play. And so began the experiment that is Owls, with the understanding that if our principles ever felt compromised or if our feelings ever dissolved, so would the group.

What happens when four people prioritize their love of discovering and making music together over all else? For starters, this album. This is the very music that inspired us to give our weird little side-project a name.

We love every note on this record, and we humbly invite you to join us—to listen, to trust, and to be exactly who you are.”

– Alexi, Ayane, Gabriel, and Paul

Tracklist: 

1. When The Night [08:47]
2. Ricercar [04:19]
3. Rəqs [07:43]
4. Les Barricades Mystérieuses [02:59]
5. Vox Petra [09:20]
6. Good Medicine [12:58]