Tundra
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There is a captivating stillness that pervades during the beginning of Tundra [...] No individual instrument is discernible from the sustained ethereal chords, yet the precarious quality that accompanies the group's collaborative improvisation is still tangible. From within this stillness emerges the icy, crystalline landscape of Tundra.
– Raf Hosking, Five Lines
Tundra is the second studio album of Aotearoa New Zealand's Moth Quartet, comprised of composer-performers Tristan Carter (violin), Salina Fisher (violin), Elliot Vaughan (viola), and Nicholas Denton Protsack (violoncello). True to its namesake, it is a meditation in contrasts; vast, expansive, and gradually shifting harmonies pervade the work—yet contained within these textures are delicate and complex timbres, creaks and ethereal sweeps of bow hair. This sound-world invoking both expansive topographies and intricate botanical microcosms, treats tundra not as an object of musical depiction, but as a living environment that each member of the quartet must collectively navigate through sensitive and deliberate applications of free improvisation.
Read Moth Quartet: Spectres of Whenua, an essay about Tundra by Noel Meek
Tracklist:
All tracks composed and performed by Moth Quartet: Tristan Carter (violin), Salina Fisher (violin), Elliot Vaughan (viola), Nicholas Denton Protsack (cello).
Nicholas Denton Protsack, producer.
Kell Sunshine, album design.
John Neill, recording engineer.
Rodney Vaughan, album photography.
Mastered by Grey Market Mastering (Harris Newman), Montreal, QC.
Released December 12th, 2025.
© 2025 Moth Quartet
℗ 2025 Whatnot Records Inc.