AlbuM

This is my seventh album of Antarctic music and sixth collaboration with Michael Stibor.  It continues an interest in and affection for Antarctica that began with my first visit in 1993 as a tourist and continued through four more trips to the Antarctic Peninsula, the Ross Sea area and along the coast of Western Antarctica.  For this album, we continue with a mixture of styles and themes that are mere musical shards of the range of emotions and interests that Antarctica may inspire. This is more fully described in the album notes that follow.  My wife, Carole Desmarteau also contributed a rousing melodic track for this album.  I continue to be indebted to my musical collaborator, Michael Stibor, for his compositional, arrangement, keyboard and guitar skills.

–  Valmar Kurol, Montreal, Canada, September 2024

This album, as with the previous ones, continues to expand and broaden the perception of what music related to Antarctica can sound like.  I love the juxtaposition of jazz, electronic, and world music style influences with topics related to Antarctica – a place few would associate with these styles of music.  On a personal and musical level, this has been one of my favourite albums that we have done so far.  These compositions have shown greater depth and musical maturity, with a larger pallet to work with and expand on.  I hope you all like it.

–  Michael Stibor, Montreal, Canada, September 2024