With orchestral sweeps and scattered drones, with Southern U.S. and North Atlantic accents, this cosmopolitan sound is not what you would expect from a string band. Released a little over a year after their debut album Unless, Formations illustrates the telepathic lucidity that an extra year of performing and creating has given this ensemble. Hawktail is the instrumental acoustic quartet of fiddler Brittany Haas, bassist Paul Kowert, guitarist Jordan Tice, and mandolinist Dominick Leslie. Although at first glance it looks like a side project of acoustic superpickers, their original music is cohesive and unique, setting them apart as an ensemble with a sound built from the ground up. With orchestral sweeps and scattered drones, with Southern U.S. and North Atlantic accents, this cosmopolitan sound is not what you would expect from a string band. Each member of Hawktail brings a strong individuality to the project. Haas, whose self-titled 2004 release instantly became a touchstone for a generation of longtime fiddlers, has since lent her sound to Crooked Still, Steve From Live, Here, Steve Martin, and David Rawlings, where she played alongside Kowert, the Grammy-winning virtuoso bassist of Punch Brothers. Tice is a rare guitarist whose music highlights his unique identity and a special talent for songwriting and melody writing. Leslie is a versatile mandolinist whose rhythmic sensibility has made him ubiquitous on the acoustic music scene for more than ten years. However, despite each of their abilities to contribute to many musical situations, something special happens when they come together as Hawktail. Together, they have earned a reputation as a rare ensemble of composers and instrumentalists capable of taking the listener on a journey without using words. Hawktail’s new album, Formations, arrives a little over a year after their debut, Unless. Unlike the arduous process of writing and recording over more than three years, Formations came together quickly — it was written in two months and recorded in four days at Southern Ground Studios in Nashville. “We had studio gigs to record an EP of covers, arrangements we were playing live,” says Kowert, “but we had these good starts that sounded so good that we were like, ‘let’s just finish this instead.’” Haas adds, “We found a new joy in creating, drawing on the experience we gained from writing and recording Unless.” This new energy is largely due to Leslie’s presence since the creation of Formations. Leslie said, “Our first album had more or less been written by the time I joined the band. So it was more about finding a complementary part. On Formations, I was there for the writing, which allowed the mandolin to play a fundamental role in the music.” Tice adds, “It became easier to make music once we became a quartet.” Kowert explains: “The strong rhythmic component of the mandolin brought order to our new ideas, and the additional voice greatly expanded the possibilities for musical arrangement. We’re able to embrace things like bluegrass rhythm and double fiddle, but also build certain pieces around a more complex rhythm, which is now an equal ingredient in the compositions.”