Ever since they formed nearly two decades ago, Brooklyn Rider have been reimagining the string quartet’s potential both in their playing style and in their devotion to new repertoire. Their commitment to forging connections with musical traditions beyond the classical one in which they were trained calls to mind the philosophy of the Silkroad Ensemble. Indeed, Brooklyn Rider’s founding members all include participation in Silkroad among their credentials. The quartet’s name nods to their base in the Brooklyn borough of New York City – an epicentre of multicultural impulses – and to the eclectic outlook of the network of progressive artists based in Munich in the early 20th century known as Der Blaue Reiter.

The intersection of references to Arabic, klezmer and contemporary Western idioms on ‘Starlighter’ is characteristic of their all-embracing outlook. So, too, is the palpable sense of friendship among the players that animates the album. Born in Damascus, Syria, in 1976, the clarinettist and composer Kinan Azmeh, himself a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, is a longstanding fellow Brooklynite and regular collaborator with the quartet (violinists Colin Jacobsen and Johnny Gandelsman, viola player Nicholas Cords and cellist Michael Nicolas). His composition Dabke on Martense Street, for example, originated from an urge to celebrate their friendship at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown. Conflating his vision of a hoped-for return to live music-making with memories of a dabke or circle dance familiar from wedding festivities in his homeland, this evocative piece takes a number of unexpected turns as it navigates excitingly propulsive rhythms with introspective, even sorrow-tinged undercurrents.

Dabke is actually the only one of the four works on ‘Starlighter’ written for string quartet alone. Azmeh also composed and performs on the album’s longest piece, the tripartite In the Element. Inspired by feelings of being at home – in nature, and on his first visit back to Damascus since the start of the Syrian war – it opens with Azmeh’s arresting evocation of soulful Middle Eastern vocalism on his instrument. The songful textures of a clarinet quintet are at times transformed into a raucous soundscape by percussionist Mathias Kunzli, another in this circle of friends.

Colin Jacobsen, who likewise doubles as a composer and performer, wrote the title-track as a clarinet quintet for Azmeh, forging a beautifully structured and poetic essay that reimagines sonata form in terms of the process of photosynthesis. The sense of subtle control of transitions with which this fantasy unfolds contrasts with the joyful abandon of the closing track. Written by another regular collaborator, the composer, viola player, fadolínist and arranger Ljova (Lev Zhurbin), Everywhere Is Falling Everywhere responds to a poem by Rumi with instigations to collective ecstasy.