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"Gottlieb is one of those singers – like Rokia Traore or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – whose voice can convey great power and soul…Throughout, Gottlieb matches a warm voice and vocal control with a singular compositional style. She reaches far and wide, but the music is all of a piece." - Jazziz Jerusalem-born, Montreal-based vocalist and composer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb has frequently set poetry to music. When she decided to ask three of her favourite creative clarinetists to collaborate with her on a new song cycle using poetry inspired by the wind, she set in motion a process of discovery for them all. Inspired by her grandfather Harry, a clarinet player, Ayelet had in mind a song cycle with titles drawn from Christina Rossetti’s poem “Who Has Seen the Wind?”, which she loved for its evocation of a world defined by sound as much as sight. This cycle (tracks 2-7) grew into a full set of music, with everyone contributing compositions and arrangements. Flowing effortlessly from texted songs to Ayelet’s wordless compositions, where the voice is another wind instrument, the quartet blends turbulent, contemporary electro-acoustic energies with gentler, klezmer-inspired gestures and jazz-infused improvisations, closing on a wistful note with François Houle’s lyrical arrangement of Tom Waits’ “The Last Rose of Summer.” Ayelet describes some of the metaphorical and emotional themes running through Pneuma (ancient Greek word for air in motion, breath, spirit, soul): “The wind theme could have led to a more serene, meditative-sounding set, but much of our music reflects the more extreme aspects of pneuma. It offers the wind as an empty space, exposing a sense of loss (‘Passing By / The Shape of Tears’); being buffeted by winds to the point of losing ourselves (‘The Wind Will Take Us’); a turbulence of emotions entangled in love (‘Trembling / Light’); observing the beauty that survives the wind’s destruction (‘Ruined House’). The images we chose for the album art, taken in Japan and British Columbia by Canadian artist Gem Salsberg, vividly depict the four elements, visualizing wind in the burning fire and smoky air, rough waters and a sandstorm.”