If you attended our final Chicago show, No Regrets, you left with a hand-screen-printed poster, signed by its creator, artist Ben Chlapek. It is an image bursting with esoteric Spektral symbolism, and we promised to decode it for you one day.
Well, that day has arrived! These are the insider-i-est of inside jokes amongst the quartet members, so explanations will not always lead to understanding…but now you know.
01. Beach ball: a takeaway gift from our Yacht Rock show at Constellation in 2016
02. Water tower: an obsession of Theo’s, and something for which we kept our eyes peeled while on the road
03. Postcard: the centerpiece of our Something to Write Home About program, our interactive concerts during which audience members were prompted to write to loved ones as we played
04. I Heart Morty Headband: the audience prize for making it through all five hours of Morton Feldman’s String Quartet No. 2 with us at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017
05. Rooster: as featured being held by us in social media posts from Vermont and later, Wenatchee, WA
06. Beer bottle: the bespoke-brewed, audience takeaway gift from our Schoenberg the Emancipator program at the Cliff Dwellers Club in 2018
07. Shark boat: A personal, submersible watercraft found in the now-defunct SkyMall catalog; one receives a “shark boat” for acts of magnanimity and/or valor on behalf of, or benefiting the members of Spektral Quartet
08. Wolf: our secret is now widely known, that before each performance, we circle up and howl like wolves, because the strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf
09. A jar of jam: at least once per month, Clara suggested that we start a jam-of-the-month club amongst the Spektral faithful – this idea, strangely, never came to…fruition
10. The (fictitious) Palos Heights Review newspaper: perhaps the best slight we ever received in the press came by way of the Chicago Classical Review (which is run from…Palos Heights?), which accused us of being “too cool for school”
11. 1301: the house number of our wonderful rehearsal space
12. A bust of George Lewis: because if you were going to commission a bust, it would necessarily have to pay tribute to George, right?
13. Doyle’s backpack: said to contain every item one could need in any and all eventualities
14. Arby’s bag: commemorating Aurelien’s favorite restaurant, in perpetuity
15. Keep Spektral Weird: the final marketing slogan, primed for merch, that sadly went unrealized before the end. Nevertheless, do keep Spektral weird, friends
16. 1980’s brick phone: symbolizing the project that put us on the (national) map, Mobile Miniatures!
17. Slugs copulating: if Theo’s obsession is water towers, Clara’s arrives by way of nature documentaries
18. A tiny desk: playing NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts with Miguel Zenón in 2019 was a high water mark for our ensemble
19. An atomic clock: another fascination of Clara’s– if even the atomic clock has to be adjusted, where does that time go…man?
20. Saxophone: unless you were at our Talent Show at the Hideout in 2019, you may not be aware that Theo was once a semi-pro sax player
21. Russ’s wallet: what have we searched for more than our own unique voice and interpretive personality as an ensemble? Behold…
22. Horse’s ass trophy: a merit-based award bestowed on participants in the aforementioned Talent Show
23. Flaco the turtle: the resident turtle at our rehearsal space, to whom we bequeathed this noble moniker
24. Foot-foot: the titular character from The Shaggs’ inscrutible hit, as immortalized in a cover (featuring dueling kick drums) by composer LJ White
25. Momo’s letter: once, a pre-collegiate concertgoer in upstate New York provided us with a letter, filled top-to-bottom with helpful hints to rectify each of our individual flaws as players
26. Rubber chicken: a…musical instrument…employed by composer Baldwin Giang for his piece on our Music Plus One +1 show at Constellation in 2019
27. Bald eagle with toupee: eagle-eyed patrons will have noticed, and perhaps even donated as a result of, the semi-frequent advertisement in our programs for an organization dedicated to eradicating eagle pattern baldness
28. Garage door: the aural backdrop to all our rehearsals – an especially argumentative garage door that sang like a tenor…being eaten by an alligator
29. Solar eclipse: the initial inspiration for Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Sigurdur Gudjonsson’s Enigma, which we toured around the country and eventually, Reykjavik.
30. Chrysler Stow ‘N Go minivan: the preferred chariot for all Spektral adventures
31. Whoopie cushion: the takeaway gift, and crowd participation instrument, for the Serious Business album release concert at Mayne Stage in 2016
ALSO PICTURED: Spektral felines Lulu, Zelda, and Tommy; initials of each Spektral member;