Release date: September 26, 2025
(Scroll down for more info)
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Luke Cissell announces the upcoming release of the double album String Quartets Nos. 1-5.
This collection invites listeners into Cissell's sui generis musical universe, constellated with its hallmark sweeping melodicism, breathtaking rhythmic complexity, and dazzling harmonic language that channels the expansive scope the post-Romantic together with the raw intensity of bluegrass and old-time fiddling. Realized through a solo recording process with Cissell performing each of the parts himself, the music glistens with intimate nuance, iridescent polyphonic texture, and haunting beauty. Spanning fifteen years of the composer's career, this significant body of work represents a major contribution to the repertoire from a singular compositional voice.
String Quartets Nos. 1-5 is available for streaming and download on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, and all major digital platforms worldwide on September 26, 2025. A limited edition 2-CD set is currently available for preorder, in addition to downloadable sheet music.
Luke Cissell writes and records music in a distinctive style that is by turns arrestingly melodic, beguilingly layered, and eminently human, developed out of his roots as a versatile musician at the intersection of classical, bluegrass, and post-rock traditions. In addition to his chamber works and recent SERENADE (2023), a collection of music for string orchestra, Cissell has released a number of genre-defying albums woven with strings and electronics: COSMOGRAPHY (2013), THINKING/FEELING (2018), NIGHTSIDE (2020), and EMERALD CITIES (2021). Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Cissell is a longtime resident of New York City, where he moonlights as a sought-after session musician and Teaching Artist with the New York Philharmonic.