Meet the Performing Members of Late Vespers
Six musicians of distinct temperament and questionable provenance. United by a shared love of slow chord changes and dimly lit rooms.
Brother Casimir Volkov
“Brother” in spirit only — the order disowned him in 2019 over what he describes as “a misunderstanding about a goat.” Writes most of the album’s vocal arrangements while floating in a sensory-deprivation tank.
Trygve Halvorsen
Trained at the Royal Conservatory in Oslo. Asked to leave the Royal Conservatory in Oslo. Now performs exclusively at golden hour and refuses to play anything in a major key. Communicates only by handwritten note.
Ignatius Pemberton-Glass
Claims to have been knighted by a minor European royal house. Has not produced documentation. Plays seventeen historical wind instruments, none of them well. Refuses to be photographed without a cravat.
Wren Holloway
Joined the ensemble after sending in a fourteen-minute tape recording of a furnace turning on in their basement. Speaks only above a whisper, and only on Tuesdays. We are not sure where Wren lives.
Dimitri Krestovsky
Defected from a regional orchestra in 1998 under circumstances no one will fully describe. Bows the cello so slowly that one passage on Vespers reportedly took eleven minutes to record. We kept it.
Sister Perpetua Lark
Trained in sacred polyphony at a convent in northern Italy that we cannot, for legal reasons, name. Holds a long, single, sustained tone better than anyone in the ensemble. Brings the bowls. Brings the lavender. Brings, sometimes, soup.
A Note From the Ensemble
It is sometimes asked whether the members of Late Vespers are, in any conventional sense, six separate people. To which we reply: are any of us, really?
The act of making music in the late hours is itself a process of becoming several distinct entities, in shifts. The composer at 11 p.m. is not the composer at 2 a.m., who is not the composer at 4 a.m. weeping over a recorder part. Each of these is its own person, with its own opinions, hairstyle, and tax situation.
We are simply choosing to be honest about it.
“You contain multitudes. We contain at least six.”
— Brother Casimir, in an interview he gave to himself