Releases February 12, 2026

Music by Russell Wallace

Saltchuck City Orchestra
Emily Cheung, soprano; Renee Fajardo, mezzo-soprano; Sam Dabrusin, tenor; Russell Wallace, bass; Lan Tung, erhu; Cameron Wilson, violin; Marina Hasselberg, cello; John Korsrud, trumpet; Bill Runge, alto sax; John Nicholson, tenor sax; Dave Sikula, guitar; Wynston Minckler, bass; Noah Franche-Nolan, piano, keys; Kai Basanta, drums

Guest Musicians
Shruti Ramani, Hindustani singing (6); Curtis Andrews, mridangam (6); Raphael Geronimo, percussion (3, 4, 5, 7)

Klatwa – Embark
I trace my finger over this cover, the curved lines and angles forming the word “Klatwa – to embark”, the same marks my great-grandfather’s pen once made when writing to villages across the mountains. The songs within pulse with movement: salmon fighting upstream, crows banking against dusky skies, ancestors descending from stars, and communities coming together. This Chinook shorthand also flowed between Stʼatʼimc hands in the 1800s, a code of connection that barely survived.

I still hear my mother’s voice in the melody of “Gathering.” She would hum it first, barely audible, in the residential school’s shadowed corners. Girls would gather around bodies huddled close, as she taught them to shape their mouths around Stʼatʼimc syllables the teachers had forbidden. They memorized each word, each inflection, passing it between them like a secret flame that mustn’t die. Years later, when I record this song, I feel her breath in mine—the same defiant air that kept our language burning.

Vancouver rose from this coastal soil nourished by the intertwined roots of many peoples. Saltchuck City Orchestra honours this convergence with each note a declaration of defiance, each harmony an offering to those who found strength in unity, and each rhythm inviting us all to dance. – Russell WallaceKlatwa – Embark
I trace my finger over this cover, the curved lines and angles forming the word “Klatwa – to embark”, the same marks my great-grandfather’s pen once made when writing to villages across the mountains. The songs within pulse with movement: salmon fighting upstream, crows banking against dusky skies, ancestors descending from stars, and communities coming together. This Chinook shorthand also flowed between Stʼatʼimc hands in the 1800s, a code of connection that barely survived.

I still hear my mother’s voice in the melody of “Gathering.” She would hum it first, barely audible, in the residential school’s shadowed corners. Girls would gather around bodies huddled close, as she taught them to shape their mouths around Stʼatʼimc syllables the teachers had forbidden. They memorized each word, each inflection, passing it between them like a secret flame that mustn’t die. Years later, when I record this song, I feel her breath in mine—the same defiant air that kept our language burning.

Vancouver rose from this coastal soil nourished by the intertwined roots of many peoples. Saltchuck City Orchestra honours this convergence with each note a declaration of defiance, each harmony an offering to those who found strength in unity, and each rhythm inviting us all to dance. – Russell Wallace

TRACKS
1. The Fog Lifts Revealing the Path Ahead
2. River of Crows
3. Zumak (Spring Salmon)
4. Star People
5. Salish Counting Song
6. Indian Arm
7. Gathering Song

Produced by John Korsrud & Russell Wallace
Music composed by Russell Wallace
Arranged by John Korsrud
Recorded at Hipposonic Studios, Vancouver, BC, May 2025
Recorded & mixed by Sheldon Zaharko
Edited by Sheldon Zaharko, Russell Wallace & John Korsrud
Mastered by Jamie Sitar
Design & photography by Mark Mushet

Thanks to First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the British Columbia Arts Council for their support

klatwa is available for pre-order from:

TK571 © 2026 Redshift Records

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