Above: Opening the night of jazz-with-a-difference was Sydney jazz quartet, The Weatherbirds – Bernice Tesara (trumpet), Max Leggott (tenor sax), Cairn Peterson (bass), and Somesh Putcha (drums). Their set included clever originals. Photo: Tawfik Elgazzar. Featured image: Ephemera Quartet. Photo: Paul Nolan.
Jazz. That edgy genre that has stood the test of time and that continues to evolve and survive in a science-defying, socially magnetic way. Its cool, calming ambience has inspired great musicians and performers to champion its intimate excitement and experiment with its voice, from jazz music’s birthplace in America to our Antipodean now.
Trad jazz and its century of different descendants have been heard in many great venues across our city- Soup Plus, The Basement, The Rossevelt and El Rocco to name a few. Fast forward to troubled 2026 and that haven of hope, musical morphing and uplifting live modern jazz performances, 21 Shepherd St Marrickville, with its Living Room Theatre space has just promoted a night of ‘space jazz’.
This venue’s welcoming, chic and industrial-edgy environs ably hosted the launch of Ephemera Quartet’s latest recorded release, Star Opus. This intriguing manipulation of the jazz quartet and the jazz idiom with tunes reflecting stars, astronomical events and heavenly bodies is now three albums and many live performances plus extended live improvisation segments strong.
Above: Bassist Elsen Price performs with projections of NASA footage playing throughout. Photo: Tawfik Elgazzar.
Star Opus once more features works penned by Keyna Wilkins (composer, pianist and flautist) and benefits from the group gesturing and sensitive textural blend of keyboard and flute timbres with trumpet (Will Gilbert), predominantly bowed double bass (under the otherworldly control of Elsen Price) and drums (Shane Carpini at the live launch and Jodie Michael on the recording.
The Living Room Theatre space took us way out of its domestic namesake and into the stratosphere as this inimitable jazz voice rocketed across morphed jazz formats, orbited several original Keyna Wilkins compositional frameworks and through free, simultaneous improvisation in satellite exquisiteness across the quartet, bounced breathtaking atmospheric uniqueness our earthly way.
As gifted to us by Ephemera Quartet on its first two albums, sonic material sourced from NASA satellite recordings, NASA video footage and excellent astronomical track or song titles take this jazz rebirth light years from New Orleans at the turn of the twentieth century.
Star Opus has six tracks, each with a vista that is refreshingly different as well as sharing the head or opening and focus quite evenly between the instruments.
Above: Ephemera Quartet and projections in the 21 Shepherd St Living Room Theatre space. Photo: Tawfik Elgazzar.
The ambience and energies undulate and provide satisfying contrast if the album is listened to in order, as we heard at the launch event.
Through the beauty of streaming sites, we can of course listen to the individual space environments out of order, on a loop to immerse ourselves in an astronomical vibe we connect with or are obsessed with. The keen crafting of the compositions-all with opportunity for some level of improvisation-ensures new worlds stand successfully when we enter (tap) directly on them however we choose.
The swoop of the album with its aforementioned undulations in energy and pictorial titles is quite a voyage, mission and discovery of the balanced, atypical gesturing of this experienced group communication, now reaching even more modern and ethereal heights.
The first track (‘Stellar Parrallax’) is well placed. Its busy, darting motifs, with high energy, instantly endearing asymmetry and melodic cells grab our attention. This initial buzz to our senses, using piano, trumpet and bass meshed with drum fragments is a great start.
Above: The Star Opus launch line-up was Keyna Wilkins, Will Gilbert, Shane Carpini and Elsen Price. Photo: Tawfik Elgazzar.
Closeness of lines between brilliantly bleded flute and trumpet and an expansive, excellent and evocative flute opening provide an intense, more subdued wash of colours for the next piece, ‘Asteroid Vesta’. This dreamy unearthly atmosphere is Keyna Wilkins-the flautist and space jazz exponent at her best.
Haunting NASA satellite recordings as ostinato characterise the following piece, ‘Mercury Rising’. Flute joins some innovative trumpet patterning above the deep space sounds. Bass bowed effects here and in other tracks add to the texture of this abstract, progressive space sound clouds.
Keyna Wilkins’ ability to switch back to piano, providing circular accompaniment changes the timbre beautifully in the album order shift opening to ‘Oceans of Venus’.
This ballad begins with high register bass, a penetrating, carefully shaped lyric line to lose ourselves in before Will Gilbert’s articulation and melodic orbits take over, equally mesmerising before the even arpeggiations become extemporised into more savage shapes.
The piano-only end to this piece on the album sequence then shifts to an impressive solo bass meditation to open ‘Lunar Eclipse’. Indeed this album could be saved as an elevated meditation/relaxation moment to revisit-rivalling much that exists in that style currently on streaming services.
A pace change in piano during this track, with drums following, brings us out of mellow into a new spacescape. The abstract and sharper patterns collide, with this gentle meteor shower of gesture being joined by trumpet elaborations, but the key colourisation and upwards groove belong to percussion and piano duetting.
Above: Ephemera Quartet and projections filled the Living Room Theatre space. Photo: Tawfik Elgazzar.
To end the album the piece is ‘Pluto’. A strong finish. It is once more full of satellite sounds and NASA soundtrack excerpts. Elsen Price’s expressive, unique low string song ushers in some more meditative contributions from trumpet and flute.
This space jazz tapestry with NASA sounds is an expansive trip and smooth fluid texture to experience with poetry emitting from each instruments spacious, glimmering utterances-which shift over each other, improvise and emerge then fade into this musically fascinating aether.
The screen to the side of the quartet for the launch was providing non-stop space footage. My pie-in-the-space-sky wish would be for a huge film-like screen behind Ephemera Quartet, filling the salubrious Living Room Theatre space and enveloping the group launching this latest variegated vista. Also how good would videos for tracks be to join the You Tube streaming experience – for the ‘next-level’ album’s atmospheric music to rocket us even further into a non-cliche sonic and visual space.
The tracks of Star Opus can be yours to space jump in any order and re-enter their fine atmospheres at any of the streaming services with links below. Rejoice in the significant development and expansion of this quartet’s already interesting place in jazz history and its own shared modern musical galaxy.
Five big, bold shooting stars for this album release and 21 Shepherd St launch party.
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