Andrea Keller - Flicker & Polar Bird

Australian pianist and composer Andrea Keller releases her twenty-third album as leader in 2023. Flicker & Polar Bird is a double album that mixes new Keller creations with re-imaginings of older works. The music celebrates the connections Andrea made as the ANU H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellow in 2022, which enabled her to work with a host of wonderful musicians, deepening existing collaborations, and creating new ones.

Featuring Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet), John Mackey (saxophone), Rachael Thoms (voice), Liam Budge (voice), Véronique Serret (violin), and string sections in Sydney and Canberra, the compositions on this double release date from 2010 to 2022 and include many previously unreleased tracks.

The Flicker series, which began with a commission from Solstice Trio (2017), captures flashes of memory. Flicker 2 – 5 and Polar Bird (2022) were composed specifically for the trio with Miroslav and John. Treasured Angels and Cry Heart But Never Break were commissioned by the Australian Art Orchestra (2018), while I am a little church appears in the song cycle Still Night (2016). Both Compassionately Yours… (2019), and Pennies From Eve (2010) are being released for the first time here, having been commissioned by the Adelaide Festival and ANU Canberra respectively.