Synth arpeggios and strings spiral like nebulas. Piano and guitar play with light and dark to create a horizon over a mysterious, unknown landscape. The Querkus sound is timeless.
This is a living timelessness like an ancient tree that laughs at time and flows through yearly cycles in its own unique way. The spirit of such trees is celebrated in this music: a love of trees led to the band being named in latin for the Oak. Lyrics often reverent to nature coast on sad melodies with hope, like a single star at night. That world is beautiful despite daily pain. Hearts are broken and lips smile.
Influences from classical music live in the layered string arrangements: the intricate piano borrows from Mozart and slips and slides with a progressive use of discordant harmony.
Querkus’ music can be complex.
Querkus is usually the duo of lead vocalist and pianist Karen Asmundson and guitarist/producer Edgar Ozolins.
They contrast and compliment each other like the elements in their music – a forestry technician and a truck driver, female and male, piano and guitar.
Karen and Edgar have spent the last ten years exploring music together bonded by a shared curiosity of their differences. And they work hard at it: both have studied classical technique for years.
Querkus is at home in the world of visual art, often performing at grandiose arts events where cocktail gloves are essentials and a kaleidoscope of martinis flow late into the night. This connection with art and film comes from a close involvement in music and audio production for local film productions.
At a special event in 2006, Querkus took this film connection one step further by celebrating David Lynch’s 60th birthday with endorsement from Lynch himself. Shortly after a Querkus track titled Rubbing My Eyes was added to a compilation CD that was given to Lynch by his own Foundation as a birthday gift.
Querkus launched their first recording, an EP titled No Direction, in 2002 to a sold-out audience. The EP charted on college radio stations across Canada, which inspired Querkus to tour Ontario and Quebec later that year. A performance in Toronto was recorded and later released in 2003 as The Fire Behind Us – a limited-print live album that also featured two studio tracks and a remix of No Direction track October 16 by DJ/Producer Joe Silva.
Since then Querkus has undergone a metamorphosis: moving from all electro to an electro-acoustic hybrid.
In fall of 2006 Querkus began recording a full length album. A painstaking labour of love.
Many of Winnipeg’s finest appear on the album including the Animata String Quartet, Steve Martens (drumkit) and Joshua Stanton (tabla). Karen and Edgar handle the rest of the instruments and vocals.
After more than two years of careful work the album’s release is in sight and set for early 2010.