WYSO music director Juliet Fromholt spoke with Nick Kizirnis and Kate Wakefield about their new album, Quiet Signals, which will be released this Friday. According to Kizirnis, who plays guitar on the album, the songs on Quiet Signals began as acoustic recordings in “Joni Mitchell tunings,” and incorporated musical ideas he had been experimenting with for years. He began sending the recordings to Kate Wakefield, of Cincinnati band Lung, during the pandemic. As Wakefield explained, she would “zone out, drink some tea, write some cello parts, and send them back.”
Quiet Signals was recorded entirely remotely. It is also quieter, and more textural, than most of either musician’s catalogue. In the interview, Wakefield talks about the unique magic of performing softly. She and Kizirnis also talk about adapting the material on the album for live performances. The album versions contain several layers of guitar and cello, and the musicians initially experimented with using looping and drones to augment their live performance. However, they decided that the simplest arrangement–just guitar and cello–was also the most captivating.
Quiet Signals will be released this Friday, February 17th. It is available for preorder now on Bandcamp. They will also perform live this Sunday, February 19th, at Vagabond Studio and Gallery in downtown Dayton's Front Street Complex for an album release party. Music starts at 5:00pm.
Kizirnis and Wakefield have also released a video for the title track from Quiet Signals:
