The group Avalon -- consisting of SUNY Oswego music faculty member Juliet Forshaw and Michael Judge -- has a new album that dovetails with a wider, uplifting mission.
Their 2020 record, “My Evil Plan,” features what the duo describes as “mythological cabaret” or “folk theatre,” as the songs and performances take on a theatrical air.
Their musical partnership started shortly after they first met five years ago, appropriately at a live-music venue.
“I heard Michael play some songs at an open mic night at the Oswego Music Hall, and I was really impressed,” Forshaw said. “We started collaborating. We went to a lot of open mics at the music hall.”
The pair described their collaboration as “more than a musical project.”
“It’s really trying to transform the world through music,” Forshaw said. “We see great amounts of untapped human potential, and we want to help inspire greater human potential, whatever that may look like.”
In large part, this starts locally from performing and making connections, Judge said. “We want to be part of elevating the music scene,” he noted.
“My Evil Plan,” the title track, came about as they “have always been interested in ulterior motives -- and everybody has ulterior motives,” Forshaw explained. That many of the songs they subsequently wrote fit together on the record was serendipity, she added.
“We explore the high and lows of life through myths,” Forshaw noted. “We consider it our path to explore the good, the bad and the ugly.”
“All in one song, sometimes,” Judge added.
On the album, the pair performed a range of instruments including guitar, keyboards, banjo, recorder, dulcimer, glockenspiel and vocals. SUNY Oswego alumnus Taylor Ricks joined them for four songs on bass. Judge and Forshaw recorded the sessions with Josh Russell of the college’s music department doing the final mastering.
For more information and to listen to the album, visit the Avalon Bandcamp page.