Sarah Neufeld/Richard Reed Parry/Rebecca Foon, have formed neoclassical group from Montreal, Quebec. Recently, the group shared “Maria” the lead-single from their forthcoming Shahzad Ismaily produced album First Sounds, available November 1st via Envision Records/One Little Independent.

The trio originally met in Montreal during the late 1990’s while independently searching for their place in the local arts and culture community. For two years, Rebecca, Sarah and Richard collaborated in various capacities before embarking on their respective musical careers. Decades later, a pandemic winter reunited old friends as they rediscovered their innate chemistry that led into their first album. The album is produced by multi-artist/produer Shahzad Ismaily who has contributed the percussions to “Maria”.

Richard Reed Perry fondly recalls their story:

“In Montreal, October 1999, the three of us played music with each other for the first time. As we began to improvise together we felt a shared, wordless musical language emerge right away, somehow intuitive and familiar from the very start.

We experimented and played together often at that time – Montreal was and still is a very creative and multi-faceted artistic hive of activity. The musical chemistry we found together was formative in each of the bands we went on to form and musical collaborations we pursued, but we never made a recording of our original trio and its unique, intimate and explorative sound.

Decades of friendship and many bands later, in the heart of the first pandemic winter the three of us got together in a room and made our first album as an ensemble. Picking up exactly where we left off years earlier, we began fashioning compositions that immediately tapped into the same musical language we had discovered between us so many years earlier.

Inspired by an old handmade recording, “Maria” reverberates with an emotive hymn-like invocation. The single is accompanied by an imaginative music video shot by Jason Last.

“Recording and observing nature in Catalonia, Spain, I wanted to capture the cyclical and intricate nature of the sound through elements of light, touch, and the movement of my own body as I shot for each 5 minute take. Connecting my body and the subjects that I shot.”

Richard and Sarah’s musical careers have been closely connected over the past couple of decades; with projects including Bell Orchestre (2002-present), and both members of the Arcade Fire.

Montreal composer and cellist Rebecca Foon is co-founder of the modern chamber post-rock ensemble Esmerine, as a member of Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra (2001-2008) and Set Fire To Flames (2001-2004), and more recently at the helm of her electro-acoustic songwriting project Saltland.

Sarah Neufeld/Richard Reed Parry/Rebecca Foon
First Sounds
Tracklist

Side A
1. Slow New Year
2. Duelling Flutters
3. Maria

Side B
4. Rosa Canina
5. Day Three
6. Clouding Clouds

Side C
7. First Sound
8. Circular
9. Georgia

Pre-order First Sounds HERE