It’s not very often that we write about local records whose releases come complete with accompanying sheet music. But in the case of When We Were Bears, the debut record from Milwaukee pianist and composer Alicia Rytlewski, we have to put digital pen to digital paper and show the love. This is a wonderful—and wonderfully accessible—contemporary-classical album.
For proof, look no further than opening track “Under The Hackberry Tree.” Released this week ahead of the album’s full release early next year, it’s earthy, mournful, dramatic, hypnotic, and rich. It’s neither stuffy nor background-music-forgettable. (Though, to be fair, the song and the rest of the record make for perfect late-night reading sessions. Pairs well with the third book of the original Mistborn trilogy!) It’s simply lovely.
Rytlewski composed When We Were Bears over the course of eight years, in Wisconsin locales ranging from “a biodynamic farm in rural Campbellsport to the snow-blanketed streets of Milwaukee.” The record was mixed by Milwaukee music treasure Ian Olvera, and mastered by the equally indispensable Justin Perkins. Look for it on January 24, 2025—sheet music and all.
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