released April 20, 2015

Black:
Chris Eubank cello
David Menestres bass davidmenestres.com
Dan Ruccia viola danruccia.com

White:
Jeb Bishop trombone jebbishop.com
Laurent Estoppey saxophones laurentestoppey.com
David Menestres bass davidmenestres.com

Recorded in glorious binaural sound by Dan Lilley at The Store, Raleigh, NC, September 29-30, 2014
Mastering by Andrew Weathers andrewweathers.com
Liner notes by Emily Leon desertsuprematism.com
Design by Lincoln Hancock lincolnhancock.com
Sanctuary by Josef Albers, 1942

A Waveform Alphabet production

FLAC files encoded from 24/192 .WAVs and can be decoded to whatever format your high fidelilty heart desires. The FLAC files are large (2.5+GB) and may take some time to download.



Liner notes:

Polyorchard’s melodies, or lack there of, propagate a cacophony of the absurd while evoking the sound of ritualistic incantation. Morphing from a trio to a double dectet, Polyorchard’s classically-trained musicians channel twentieth century sound and performance poet Bob Cobbing, to the atmospheric presence of convention-breaking free jazz pioneers.

Color Theory in Black and White is something altogether different. Black, theoretically, absorbs light but is absent of color. The listener is left with a visual impression, an experience. The timbre of the three stringed instruments suggests an other-wordly presence; a schizophrenic dissonance. 

White’s brass, woodwind, and strings begin with erratic pressure waves that unsystematically crescendo as quickly as they decline. Somewhere I got lost behind linguistics, only to realize that this album purposefully denies language as a human construct and forces the listener to close their eyes to focus on the semiotics of entoptic phenomena and the mindfulness of listening. 

Polyorchard’s Color Theory in Black and White produces a chiaroscuro of tonality allowing the listener to refine their perceptions of the influence sound has on the human optical system….

- Emily Leon

SquidCo: "an exciting hybrid, a chamber collective of tumult and control."

Chris Vitiello's IndyWeek review: "simultaneously destructive and constructive" www.indyweek.com/indyweek/record-review-polyorchards-color-theory-in-black-and-white

#11 on IndyWeek's 25 Best Albums of 2015:
www.indyweek.com/indyweek/listen-up-the-triangles-25-best-albums-of-2015/

Polyorchard was born a collective. Founded by upright bassist David Menestres, the always-evolving, forever-improvising ensemble could sprawl into a big lineup or shrink into modest formats. For Polyorchard's debut, Menestres anchored two distinct trios—a "Black" trio with viola and cello and a "White" trio with trombone and saxophone. The string-based group is more prone to dig deep into ideas, as when they explore every millimeter of a textural drone late in "Black 1." With horns, though, Menestres' crew grows only more conversant and communicative. "White 4," for instance, is a low and slow fireside circle, while "White 5" suggests a gaggle of chattering birds, sending signals to one another across an otherwise blank space.

- Grayson Haver Currin