Into Another Land

Original, intoxicating, soulful, unexpected, powerful, celestial—this is how audiences describe Shiri Zorn and George Muscatello’s performances. Their almost decade-long collaboration now culminates in a 2022 album incubated by lockdown, informed by the spontaneity of past Saratoga performances, and accelerated by Brazilian percussionist Mauricio Zottarelli’s rhythmic and artistic sensibilities. The first song they recorded during the months of isolation was the tender “How Deep is the Ocean?” The arrangement Zorn created features her voice up front and wordless, setting the emotional tone for the entire song. The melody ends like a question with a shift to the major, reinforcing the album’s theme of the fleeting and elusive nature of life and love. The song characterizes the joint authentic and expressive interpretations of the well-loved international repertoire Zorn and Muscatello have immersed themselves in together. 

Many of the musical decisions on the album were made collaboratively and sometimes live. Zorn’s lyrics created back stories for pieces she had long sung wordlessly; Muscatello’s angular and melodically challenging compositions collided with Zorn’s past classical vocal world; Zottarelli’s percussion voice introduced an unsettled heartbeat on one track and an upbeat celebration on another. Two original songs, the vulnerable “Witch Touch” and meditative “I Wasn’t Ready,” are the result of mutual trust, wordless communication, and the cultivation of a sacred creative space from which a shared vision emerged. Muscatello’s dream of a bass-less trio with one top voice, the guitar as the sole harmonic instrument, and drums providing a platform for their conversation was realized with the introduction of Zottarelli’s essential voice, in 2021.