TRACKS
1. Ricercar Primo • Composed by Domenico Gabrielli for solo cello with improvisation by Magnanensi
2. Só • Improvisation by Hasselberg and Magnanensi
3. Where the Sand is Hot • Improvisation by Hasselberg, Bajakian and Loewen
4. Deep Blue • Improvisation by Hasselberg and Magnanensi
5. Ricercar • Composed by Linda Catlin Smith for solo cello
6. Feras • Improvisation by Hasselberg and Loewen
7. Red • Improvisation by Hasselberg, Bajakian and Zubot
8. At a Distance • Composed by Martin Reisle for solo cello with improvisation by Bajakian
9. Signal • Improvisation by Hasselberg and Magnanensi
10. Things Fall Apart • Composed by Craig Aalders for cello and tape

Total duration: 47:40

CREDITS
Marina Hasselberg • cello
Aram Bajakian • guitar
Kenton Loewen • drums
Giorgio Magnanensi • electronics
Jesse Zubot • violin

Recorded in January 2020 by John Raham at Afterlife Studios (Vancouver, Canada).
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Jesse Zubot.

Graphic design by Araujo Design Inc.
Photography by Yukiko Onley

RED is available on Vinyl, CD, and Digital Download on Bandcamp, and also streamable on:

REVIEWS
“The Baroque, the avant-rock, the improvisational, and more mix fluidly in striking solo debut” — Alexander Varty, Stir

“Red, the first solo album by Vancouver cellist Marina Hasselberg, paints a portrait of a multi-faceted artist whose musical interests span centuries.” — Daniel Barbiero, Avant Music News

“This is the best thing I have heard this year. I love it. Can’t wait for the LP.” — OutsideLeft.com

“It seems hard to believe that this is a musician who only began exploring baroque, modern and jazz genres when she moved to Canada to pursue a masters at Western University in London.” —Stuart Derdeyn, Vancouver Sun

“radically free and playful, experimental” — Frank P. Eckert, Groove.de

TK495 © 2022 Marina Hasselberg

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Boundless inquisitiveness sits at the very heart of award-winning cellist Marina Hasselberg‘s rich artistic practice. Over the past decade, she’s traveled a distinctive route that has variously led her through early music, free improvisation, the fringes of pop songcraft, electronics, contemporary chamber music, and an array of interdisciplinary collaborations that resist classification.

Hasselberg’s deep and meticulous explorations have culminated in a solo practice that blends disparate elements from various musical realms. Her album RED (Redshift Records) sees her insightful interpretive vision colliding with her improvisatory prowess. Recorded by violinist and JUNO and Polaris-nominated producer Jesse Zubot, the disc leads listeners through an eclectic, electronics-infused, and deeply personal collection that weaves compositions by everyone from Domenico Gabrielli to Linda Catlin Smith, together with spontaneous performances that feature Hasselberg amidst a cast of her frequent collaborators: Aram Bajakian, Kenton Loewen, Giorgio Magnanensi, and Zubot.

She’s a powerful player that’s nourished by her immersion in classical training, but by no means limited by it. Her relationship with the cello was ignited at age 11 during her studies at the musical academy of Évora, in her native Portugal. She later completed a Bachelors degree in Lisbon, and in 2008, she came to Canada to pursue a Masters degree in Literature and Performance from the University of Western Ontario.

Since making Vancouver her home, Hasselberg has become a fixture within an assortment of the city’s musical communities—both strictly as a cellist and as a vital creative instigator. In 2016, she was the recipient of the City of Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Emerging Artist in Music. She was also the feature artist for Pro Musica’s 2017 Sonic Boom Music Festival — an event that culminated in a sold-out concert where she premiered 11 new works for cello and electronics. As the artistic director of NOVO Ensemble she has commissioned and presented numerous works—especially by Canadian creators. In 2016, the group was rated Best Classical Ensemble in the Vancouver Is Awesome Reader’s Poll, flanked by the Vancouver Symphony and Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble. The long list of works she has premiered spans Howard Skempton’s spartan lyricism to pop eccentric Veda Hille, fellow Vancouverite cellist Peggy Lee to plunderphonic provocateur John Oswald as well as other notables such as Jordan Nobles, Michael Oesterle, Lisa Cay Miller, and Andrea Young.

Hasselberg served as the principal cellist of the Vancouver Island Symphony, while also enjoying collaborations with Vancouver New Music, Early Music Vancouver, Sound of Dragon Ensemble, Redshift Music Society, Turning Point Ensemble, Okkyung Lee, Kee Avil, Lan Tung, Sarah Davachi, Uri Caine, Ingrid Laubrock, and Endlings, the duo of John Dieterich of Deerhoof and Pulitzter Prize winning composer Raven Chacon. She has even found herself accompanying highly regarded pop stars from Father John Misty to Mariah Carey.

Georgia Straight journalist Janet Smith wrote of Hasselberg that she “has become a standout presence on Vancouver’s music scene.” Meanwhile, speaking to her imagination and versatility, veteran writer Alexander Varty describes her as “a spark plug in two very different musical worlds.”

For more information visit: marinahasselberg.com