Ethan Setiawan is a Boston-based mandolin player who’s won such accolades as the National Mandolin Championship, the RockyGrass Mandolin Championship, and a full-ride scholarship to Berklee College of Music. His path has wended its way through traditional bluegrass to Bach partitas to free jazz, and his debut full-length album is made up of original tunes drawing from all these wells.
Along with Ethan Setiawan, band members include Noah Harrington, Sam Leslie, and Julian Pinelli. United by their roots in bluegrass, they draw on myriad influences to produce Appalachian melodies tempered with chromaticism and groove. The quartet combines the sweeping lines of Julian Pinelli’s violin with the snap and groove of mandolinist Ethan Setiawan. Sam Leslie adds imitable guitar, all supported by Noah Harrington on bass. These four talented musicians met in Boston’s thriving roots music scene. The quartet’s hope is to create music with an electric edge to its acousticality.