On the evening of July 13th, 2023, I trekked up to Arnold Hall for a very special performance at The Stone. I sat in the front row and took out my notebook then turned to my right and looked around the space. The dimly lit room buzzed with quiet activity and conversation. After a few more minutes, the lights went even lower and out walked three shadowy figures. Each clicked on a small bulb that lit their individual music stands. This was my third time seeing the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble. The first two occasions took place in the Spring of 2022 during our cow: Music/Astral Spirits showcases in Montreal and Kingston, New York. Those first two performances left quite an impression on both audiences. They’d focused on material from the recently released second album on Astral Spirits, ... of Late. This evening's performance was the first time the group had made an appearance together since that tour.

The trio is composed of Jessica Pavone (leader/ composer/ viola), Abby Swidler (violin/ viola), and Aimée Niemann (violin). After a brief acknowledgment, they struck their positions and began playing pieces from their previous album and 2020’s outstanding Lost and Found (their first for Astral Spirits and last quartet record before switching to a quantized format). They worked through these pieces beautifully. Like most musically responsive groups, there was a high level of eye contact, pausing, and visual communication while moving through the delicate and sensitive passages.

Any listener can, and should, interpret the meaning being Reverse Bloom for themselves. For me, it is not only a hark back to hearing the great violist Karen Phillips for the first time as a teenager, but also connects the dots for me in regards to music being composed for the living and breathing times, as opposed to the rigidity of recital of ancient Europeanism. The times, as bleak as they are, have set the stage for many of us to do more inward searching. And it is my belief that this album can help with that process, as the title suggests." - Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn, 2023