Why are we putting out an artist statement? Especially when the story of Behind the Wallpaper stands - dreamily, fantastically, powerfully - on its own?
I wonder, have you noticed this particular dichotomy between the musical world and the visual art world? At concerts, a performer will often introduce a piece of music by sharing a tidbit about a composer, sandwiched between multiple iterations of “and we’re sharing it because it’s some of our favorite music to play.” So, let’s get that part out of the way.
(Cue applause) “This music is some of our favorite music to play!”
That’s great, right? It is one of our favorites, after all.
But, I ask you – don’t you want performers to be playing every piece like it’s their favorite? Or at least giving each piece they present the same conditions and attention from which to grow?
At an art show or exhibit, I have yet to experience that particular throwaway of a line. A statement from a curator often relays some context with which to view a particular body of work, but more importantly, it talks about the why. Why are certain works being presented, by the people involved, at this space, at this cultural moment?
Guess what...it’s never “because it’s my favorite.”
There are a lot of WHY’s at play for us in choosing to release Behind the Wallpaper, and we don’t want to leave you in any doubt about:
why this music lights us up
why we think it’ll light you up
why it matters
why we chose to tour this piece, re-mount onstage 6 years after it was commissioned, and spend months working on this record even after we disbanded as a performing ensemble
why it mattered that we record it
how you might choose to uncover the concentric layers of meaning within the story.
You don’t need to read it to enjoy the music, but we’re here for you if you want to go deeper.
–Clara Lyon
ANOTHER WORLD ON TOP OF OUR OWN*
A STATEMENT OF ARTISTIC INTENTION FROM THE SPEKTRAL QUARTET
As you read this, the name Spektral Quartet is absent from program books and the sounds escaping the windows of our rehearsal space are no longer ours. So why, having decided to part ways, are we releasing an album together? Why was the thought of leaving Behind the Wallpaper unrecorded unthinkable.
If there is a unifying Spektral philosophy, it is that music-making is storytelling, both in a poetic sense and a literal one. We’ve aimed to be the conduit for a wide range of perspectives—those that reflect our lived experience as four individuals as well as those well outside our orbit—and ultimately, the connections we discover for ourselves become the footholds for audiences. With Alex Temple’s extraordinary suite for voice and string quartet, a personal story is presented, one from a community that has been granted very little time on stage in classical spaces. But like any great story, opportunities abound to see one’s self reflected in it
So why were we galvanized around releasing this project posthumously,
as it were?
This is a trans story. A queer story.
It’s rare to encounter art that I feel I can find my own place in, and in Alex’s protagonist I feel kinship when it comes to the weight of outside perception, the confusion and unmooring of change and other-ness, and the ultimate freedom and optimism of transmutation and alchemy.
— Theo Espy
Historically, representations of trans people have trended toward the simplistic, or tipped into outright parody. Behind the Wallpaper, though, is unique in the semi-autobiographical specificity of its protagonist—disturbingly funny, uncommonly witty, aesthetically capricious—and while the lyrics display a nuanced central character, they simultaneously illuminate a theme familiar to those who have experienced transition,
that is, alienation.
This is a story we can relate to.
This is the album I wish my teenage self could have worn out and had
to buy again. To enter this lush, extraordinary world and be welcomed to consider, even revel in my own perceived weirdness would have done heaps of good for me growing up, and also been a beautiful way to explore
some of the big questions I had on my mind.
— Clara Lyon
It’s not only about making space for under-represented stories, though. Living through an era headlined by division and an accelerating
uncertainty about who “belongs,” Behind the Wallpaper does more than present a life perhaps different from our own. It offers an enticement toward empathy by way of a universal message: you are unique, but
you are not alone.
Who among us hasn’t been othered or been relegated to the fringe at some point in their life? Most of us can access a reflection of this loneliness with little provocation. Perhaps the main character isn’t so alien after all, and we can certainly share a laugh as this piece has us imagining Aretha Franklin belting, “…like an unnatural woman,” or shudder together at the image of wriggling fish escaping our mouths. This isn’t just a presentation of an uncommon narrative. It’s an invitation extended to that self-conscious kid most of us carry around inside, even now.
This story has an exceptional soundtrack.
Almost a decade ago, Alex convinced me that there is no such thing as
‘guilty pleasures,’ and I‘ve been gratefully deprogramming my brain ever since. Behind the Wallpaper lights up the same synapses as David Lynch movies, Jack Vance novels, and House on the Rock tours for me. Elegant pastiche, profound melodrama, perspective-altering memes…I love that these are on the table.
— Doyle Armbrust
One true thing about our time together is that we treated programming like a sandbox, with each project, commission, or collaboration inevitably branching off into some future endeavor. Alex’s insatiable curiosity
and steel-trap memory put a staggering number of cultural (specifically musical and narrative) points of reference in play as she writes.
We’re the group that, if you remember, would occasionally present programs made up entirely of excerpted movements from across a handful of centuries. What a gift it is, then, for Alex to ask us to go full-chameleon in her suite, not only stylistically but dramatically as well.
How engrossing it is to be in one moment a scene partner spinning around the dance floor with Julia Holter, and the next, a sinister, creaking door…or vaporous, alien landscape.
This story is the kind we’d like to see more of in the world.
Even apart from the story being told, these songs are an absolute joy to
play and listen to. Every one of them has melodies that stay with me
for days each time I encounter them, and that stickiness helps to embed the story’s meaning more deeply. There’s a certain subversive genius to that.
I hope that this album inspires other ensembles to take up the piece and
play it everywhere!
— Russell Rolen
Happy listening,
Theo, Clara, Doyle, and Russ
*from track 10: “Spires”