"Stephen Flinn, Jung-Jae Kim, and Sylvain Monchoce create a spatial fullness of acoustic resonance with small, delicate, and exquisite sound sources. Their music walks cautiously deep into silence, meditative waves, and tranquil moments. The three musicians interact with each other, with the space and the instant, with the energy of amplitude, and sketch the soundscape of a minuscule universe."-Creative Sources

Quark is the debut album from the international experimental trio of Stephen Flinn, Sylvain Monchocé, and Jung-Jae Kim, recorded live in Berlin on November 1, 2024.

The music on Quark unfolds as a series of deeply attentive free improvisations that prioritize micro-sonic detail, spatial resonance, and the porous boundary between sound and silence. Flinn — a New York-based percussionist and improviser with a longstanding practice deploying found objects, extended techniques, and subtle textural gestures — provides both percussive color and a nuanced sense of rhythmic space.

Monchocé's alto saxophone and flute work expand the trio's palette with breath-driven multiphonics, overtones, and timbral manipulations that blur the line between acoustic instrumental sound and near-electronic textures. Kim, a South Korean tenor saxophonist whose work explores expanded sonic parameters and "Naturous Music," contributes lines that emerge from and recede into silence, suggesting an aesthetic of careful motion and hushed intensity.

Together, they craft five improvisations that feel more like immersive sound worlds than conventional compositions: from glacial, spacious arcs to delicate, fractal gestures of wind and touch. The interplay between these musicians invites deep listening, where the internal harmonics of each instrument and the silence between notes become as crucial as the sounds themselves.

Quark rewards patient engagement, unfolding like a sonic exploration of elemental particles — quiet, mysterious, and rich in tonal color, with a tactile sense of presence that transcends mere performance to become a meditative encounter with sound in space.