Painted Music
Navona, 2020
8/10
Quatra Duo consists of Jeff LaQuatra on guitar and Michelle Stanley holding down flute, and together the pair explore exciting textures across 4 pieces contributed by esteemed contemporary composers.
“Suite For Flute And Guitar” starts the listen with 6 movements where both instruments interact gently and playfully with light melodies floating cautiously in the James Mcguire composition that embraces jazz, pop music and even impressionism.
In the middle, Bryan Johanson’s sonata, “Painted Music”, flows with an adventurous approach that also finds calm ebbs of beauty to reside in as inspiration was drawn from 6 different paintings by the Swiss artist Paul Klee.
The album exits with Phillip Houghton’s “From The Dreaming”, as space is turned into a refined art form across the 3 movements that are emotive, cinematic and charming, where Houghton’s impetus for the sounds came from the Australian outback.
If the idea of guitar and flute working together seems like an unlikely pair, well, LaQuatra and Stanley certainly show no signs of incompatibility as their combined skill and imagination make it very clear that they’ve just scratched the surface of what they’re capable of.
Travels well with: James Lentini- Through Time And Place; Jackson Greenberg- First Light