Water Bear - Press

Water Bear Press

"Thank you so much for sending me Water Bear... very unique sound... a blend of classical, new age and avant-garde with a touch of jazz ;-)"

-Laney Goodman, host/producer of Women in Music, a nationally syndicated public radio show, February 2003.

"Well, it was certainly worth waiting for. Your CD is marvelously creative, musical, sensitive, clever, humorous and flawless. I enjoyed every cut which is really rare. The tunes are charming, the rhythms engaging and the counterpoint...I know I didn't teach you that. Congratulations. Thank you for sending me such an appealing gift. Thank you for producing such wonderful music."

-Stan Persky, former faculty of City College of NY, via email, February 2003.

"Water Bear's music is Joyful, Transporting and truly OUT THERE! What a pleasure to listen to Water Bear's Skinnydipping! It is like it's title... a dive into the glorious unknown of a cool deep musical pond and emerging at the surface with that exhilerating gasp of YES! when every molecule in your body is alive with sound and feeling. I love the diversity of sound on this CD. I am transported to different realms as I close my eyes, listen and allow myself to move. I highly recommend this music to anyone because it covers so many styles and sounds but it is always uniquely itself. WATERBEAR...a group unlike any string quartet you have ever experienced. Jump into Skinnydipping and float on the sound. "

-Ellen Booth Church, early childhood educator, August 2002.

"Water Bear is a string band and a string quartet, a new music ensemble and a folk music function, an improvising group and the presentation of a compositional modus. They sound like European folk musics, like Central and South American musics, like chamber or classical music, and like rural music from our own puddingstone of a country. Nevertheless, they sound like themselves."

-Ithaca Times, Bert Patterns, August, 2001

"Water Bear breaks the mold for string quartets: part classical, part jazz, part folk, they're in a class by themselves, making music that's as subtle as it is adventurous. Led by violinist Mer Boel, with Ruth Roland (violin), Hank Roberts (cello) and Tim Reppert (bass) completing the quartet, they're first-rate improvisors, top-shelf ensemble players and smart, sophisticated composers, creating music for laughing, listening, and (occasionally) dancing. It's a heady mix, filled with unlikely starts and stops, crossing borders from minimalist to reggae, folk to baroque, ambient to post-bop.
"Each of the 13 tunes here begins with a simple theme, matching the letters in a person's name to a series of notes on the scale; from there, as the row of tones determines the key, the composer writes the variations, and the players improvise their embellishments. It's the perfect middle ground between thinking and being, and playing live the band has created an incredible sense of ensemble, sympathy, synchronicity. They can sound as simple as a duo, or as complex as a sextet, capturing whatever the piece dictates: meditative or spirited, stately or syncopated, somber or lighthearted.
"On bass, Reppert keeps getting better, finding the harmonic beauty between the notes, while Roberts keeps reaching deeper, exploring the space between silence and sound, tranquility and restlessness. On violin, Roland adds classical perfection, blending beautifully with Boel, whose composing vision keeps getting sronger, richer, more singular. The songs sound like Medieval canons, like Swedish folk fiddling, like avant-jazz - but most of all, they sound fully human, lived in, listened to, beautifully timeless and perfectly of the moment."

-Kenny Berkowitz, Ithaca Times, August 21, 2002

"Much of the music composed by Water Bear, which in any given piece can sound like chamber or classical music, folk melodies or the music of the Americas, is based on a system called Name Music. The result is a rich weaving of tones and improvisation into musical compositions both passionate and expressive."

-Sally Grubb, Tompkins County Public Library.