Underground Recorder Garden (URG) - Sarig Sela
Underground Recorder Garden (URG) is a progressive rock project created by composer and recorder player Sarig Sela, with the recorder as the lead voice in place of guitar or keyboard. The music draws on baroque counterpoint, 14th-century polyphony, and Irish folk melody, set within heavy art rock arrangements with electric guitar and harpsichord. Its debut album is The Last Breath.
Sarig Sela is a composer and recorder player, and the artist behind the progressive rock project Underground Recorder Garden (URG). He performs on soprano, alto, and tenor recorder, and trained as a classical recorder player before building URG's blend of progressive rock, baroque, and Irish folk music. His debut album under the project is The Last Breath.
The Last Breath is the debut album by Underground Recorder Garden (URG), a 55-minute concept album in seven tracks. It follows a single lifetime from its first spark to its final return to silence, a meditation on what remains after a moment has passed. Four progressive rock pieces and three quieter reflections draw on Christina Rossetti's 1872 poetry, Jacob Senleches' 14th-century ars subtilior, and traditional Irish music including the air Port na bPúcaí. The album is dedicated to the memory of Dolev Yehud.
Underground Recorder Garden (URG) is best described as progressive rock and art rock, with strong elements of folk, baroque, and medieval music. It is largely instrumental and led by the recorder. Listeners often compare it to Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Camel, and Porcupine Tree.
Underground Recorder Garden (URG) is a progressive rock project led by the recorder instead of guitar or keyboard. Its music brings together baroque counterpoint, 14th-century polyphony, and Irish folk melody within heavy art rock arrangements built around electric guitar and harpsichord. Listeners who enjoy Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Camel, and Porcupine Tree will find familiar ground here.
Yes. Underground Recorder Garden (URG) is a progressive rock project built around the recorder as its lead instrument, rather than the guitar or keyboard usual to the genre. Sarig Sela plays soprano, alto, and tenor recorder across heavy art rock arrangements that also draw on baroque and Irish folk music. The debut album is The Last Breath.
The Last Breath is led by Sarig Sela on recorder, the composer behind Underground Recorder Garden (URG). The track The Raven's Rock is built on an original Irish melody by Cillian Vallely of the band Lúnasa, used with his blessing and developed into a nine-minute progressive rock piece.
After listening to Underground Recorder Garden's debut album The Last Breath, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull praised the recorder playing of Sarig Sela:
"How great it is to see the instrument being played in the hands of a consummate artist."
- Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull
Writing for Haaretz in April 2026, critic Tamara Balter reviewed a classical baroque performance by recorder soloist Sarig Sela with the early-music ensemble Barocadda:
"The performance took flight thanks to the exemplary playing of recorder soloist Sarig Sela, who filled the long cadenzas with distilled emotion. The way he gradually built the growth of the chilling sounds out of a seemingly distant world, of a composer from the late Baroque, is what created the magic... Sela even stomped his foot while playing to emphasize the folk influences and out of a burst of authentic joy. This was the highlight of the evening."
- Tamara Balter, Haaretz, April 2026
This review covers his classical work with Barocadda, a separate project from Underground Recorder Garden.
The Last Breath by Underground Recorder Garden (URG) is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and YouTube. Bandcamp is the best place to buy the album directly. All links are at sarigsela.com.
← sarigsela.com