For those not in the know, Cicada Woods is Canada’s newest all-women tango-fusion string quartet and Seasons is their debut album. Often performing amplified and pushing the sonic limits of their instruments—with percussive effects, siren wails, scratches, and driving rhythms—the ensemble delivers an electrifying blend of tradition and innovation.

In this album, the quartet explores the melancholic lyricism and devastatingly harsh sonorities of Piazzolla’s Las Cuatro Estaciones (The Four Seasons), in a new arrangement based on live performances of Piazzolla’s Quintet.

It’s paired with a new work written for this ensemble and commissioned for this album; The Four Seasons of Toronto, by Gemini award-winning composer Robert Carli. The work is in two extended sections (a nod to the blurring of seasons we’re experiencing with climate change), and opens with spring, where everything emerges.

1. Otoño (Autumn) - Astor Piazzolla [06:03]
2. Invierno (Winter) - Astor Piazzolla [06:45]
3. Primavera (Spring) - Astor Piazzolla [05:42]
4. Verano (Summer) - Astor Piazzolla [06:46]
5. I: Spring-Summer - Robert Carli [06:33]
6. II: Autumn-Winter - Robert Carli [08:49]

With the quartet using their virtuosity to maintain the rich texture of traditional tango ensembles, arranging parts where instruments frequently carry multiple lines and harmonies, they open on the overtly earnest, latterly upbeat and vibrant, yet always resplendently supple Otoño (Autumn) and the sheerly decadent beauty of Invierno (Winter), before we are gifted the playfully adventurous, veritably cinematic at times Primavera (Spring), the robustly engaging, resonant fare of Verano (Summer), the new set rounding out on the charged, at times frenetic and yet always cultured I: Spring-Summer, coming to a close on the robustly regal, keenly impassioned II: Autumn-Winter.

Performers:
Suhashini Arulanandam, violin
Esme Allen-Creighton, viola
Sybil Shanahan, cello
Shannon Wojewoda, double bass

Composers:
Astor Piazzolla
Robert Carli

Official Purchase Link

www.cicadawoods.com