Katy Jarzebowski’s FEATHERS Turns a Ballet Score into a Cinematic Sound Experiment

Katy Jarzebowski has spent the last decade scoring everything from documentaries to ballets, and her debut album FEATHERS pulls directly from that experience. Originally written for a pandemic-era ballet, the six tracks now stand alone as a kind of experimental suite—one that blends orchestral tools with sound design tricks and a willingness to let weird ideas run wild.

The opening track, FEATHERS, feels like a mood piece, granular textures swirl around each other, more focused on space and tone than melody. FLOCKS follows with more shape and movement, building tension through a mix of traditional instrumentation and warped sound objects. It balances emotional pull with a subtle sense of humor, almost theatrical but not exaggerated.

BEAKS starts with scattered wind instrument bursts, then shifts into low brass and what sounds like distorted children’s voices or ambient human noise. It’s disorienting at first but grows into something fuller and more cinematic. BONES leans heavier into texture, mixing low brass and string scratches in a way that feels sharp but soothing, an edge without aggression.

SONGS introduces choir hits and staccato strings that echo classic animation scores, while STORIES closes the record with a slower, ambient stretch that gradually builds into a rich finale.

There’s a clear sense of narrative through all six tracks. Nothing feels casual. It’s structured but playful, precise but odd in the best way. It’d sit well in animated scenes, horrors, documentaries or even an experimental theatre piece: somewhere the visuals could meet it halfway.