Evelyn Huber - Para Un Mejor Mundo - For a Better World (2019)

A picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, it's the album cover of Para un mejor mundo - For a Better World, designed by Quadro Nuevo bassist Didi Lowka, the first collaboration between harpist Evelyn Huber with Gregor Hübner and New York's Sirius Quartet. Two headlands rise from the left and right into the stylized water, on one are the four instruments of a string quartet, on the other is a harp. When you open the digipack, the instruments float from one side to the other under the moonlight. Just as Huber and Hübner draw a line between their very different string instruments, between old and new worlds, between classical music, jazz and world music. The Sirius Quartet in the current lineup with Fung Chern Hwei and Gregor Hübner on the violins, Ron Lawrence on the viola and Jeremy Harman on the cello appeared as the ideal medium for an innovative approach to this probably unrivaled string instrumentation in this stylistically open constellation. After some preparation time, they met - to get along musically and humanely right away. This is how the project Para un mejor mundo took shape. Everyone brought along pieces that he considered as an ideal challenge for this line-up: Jeremy Harman, for example, combining his wonderful composition Currents with the echoes of medieval music and serial patterns like Philip Glass with rocking force. Fung Chern Hwei his quiet Ceili, which packs many sounds and timbres together with Asian elements into a compelling main motif. Evelyn Huber took her song Nilade, a surging bow also to oriental music, but also the melancholic, folky Francel composition Aventure and the lyrical minimalist Evelyn's song of Chris Gall. Astor Piazzolla's Oblivion also became indispensable in the Quintett's string version. And finally, Gregor Hübner contributed Federico Mompou's heartbreaking Impressiones intimas - and composed the title track, his quite sentimental musical call for a better world.

Tracklist:
01. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Para un Mejor Mundo (5:49)
02. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Currents (5:46)
03. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Ceili (5:51)
04. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Aventure (9:16)
05. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - The Poet (5:37)
06. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Nilade (6:10)
07. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Evelyn's Song (7:15)
08. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Raschenitza (3:32)
09. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Impressions Intimas (4:45)
10. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Oblivion (6:31)
11. Evelyn Huber; Sirius Quartet - Heal (7:20)