Many look at music through the lens of narrative, but one could make an equally compelling case for its connections to the culinary world. Music and cooking both forge powerful and emotional connections through our more neglected senses, touching upon memory, tradition, culture and more, all without needing to resort to language or engaging our visual faculties.

Much of the material on the debut recording from Vancouver Island chamber group Aerie Trio emerges from the convergence of the kitchen and concert hall, with geography introduced as an additional agent of cohesion. In 2023, Aerie's flautist and composer Diane Berry was at a birthday party—a cooking class—with fellow Trio member Kathryn Le Gros, vocalist Marnie Setka-Mooney (heard on the present album’s title track), and others when the idea emerged in conversation. Said class was led by Chef Castro Boateng at the beloved House of Boateng restaurant in Victoria, British Columbia (Vancouver Island's largest city). Everyone present was enthusiastic, including the chef, who was eager to try something different. Berry and he subsequently connected and later The Art of Harmonizing Music and Food emerged—an event that saw Berry and her two collaborators performing her original compositions, each one inspired by a specific place on Vancouver Island. Boateng replied to each work with a dish that celebrated the very same location.

This music is assembled here as Vancouver Island Suite, and it constitutes one of the two works on Water, Rock, Tree, Sky, slated for release on Redshift Records, an imprint based on British Columbia's mainland in Vancouver.

Berry's approach as a chamber music composer is informed by her omnivorous musical diet. She has performed with a number of groups covering a wide stylistic breadth including jazz, Celtic music and music drawing from, and operating within various global traditions. Tis assortment of styles guides her approach to creating concert works, as does her immersion in the classical world—both the more recent and historical aspects of it. The resultant sonic recipe sates those hungry for contemporaneity, yet manages to respond to traditional appetites as well.

Vancouver Island Suite is an eight-part work scored for flute, cello, and piano. Generously melodic, Berry's writing emphasizes the inherent warmth of this instrumentation, putting the sonorities of the trio in conversation with one another as well as into ingenious blends. In this work, her harmonic sensibility skews transparent, a decision that conjures the open, natural expanses that dominate the landscape on which it is based. And Berry's keen ear for orchestration illuminates passages with an unexpected lustre. Two thirds of the way through the sixth movement "Garry Oak Meadow" following the conclusion of a more robust section, she introduces a flute ostinato atop which the (plucked) cello and piano trade broken chord motifs before joining together on staccato punctuations. On paper it sounds simple but to the ear it's a bewitching texture. Around the two-minute mark in the same piece, there's a wondrously delicate and colouristic flute and cello moment that suggests the soundscape of the wilderness—wind and distant birdsong.

Berry's aforementioned eclecticism is especially apparent on the titular work, which closes the disc. A trio for flute, clarinet and soprano vocalist, the brief Water Rock Tree Sky has a more ambiguous character than its counterpart, largely on account of its unique instrumentation. All three voices inhabit a similar pitch register, and can only produce one pitch at time. The pair of wind instruments can also easily elide together. Berry works deftly with these intrinsic parameters, alternating between contrast and uniformity and allowing the limited harmonic capacity and pitch scope to impart a floating quality throughout the work. the sung phrases are distributed spaciously within the piece, and between them the clarinet and flute engage in a variety of different exchanges. It's in this playful banter where one encounters the improvisatory spirit of jazz and folk music coming into play.