Soolmaan Quartet Line-up:
Tristan Driessens: oud, composition,
Christos Barbas: ney, piano, lavta, vocals,
Nathan Daems : tenor saxophone, ney, kaval,
Annemie Osborne: cello,
Illuminans Tenebras Line-up:
Lieselot De Wilde: soprano,
Eugénie De Mey: alto,
Christos Barbas: ney,
Nathan Daems: tenor saxophone, ney,
Tristan Driessens: oud, composition
The Soolmaan Ensemble unites eclectic musical references in a timeless as well as contemporary expression. Influences from Eastern and Western classical music traditions and contemporary modal music fuse into highly versatile and inspirational sounds where improvisation is the connecting factor. A mystical element derived from several traditions shines through their music. (Kefa Moras)
The press about Letters to Handenberg:
“One is to imagine landscapes carried by music, and they are beautiful, sometimes stormy, sometimes nostalgic.”
Le Soir***** “Thanks to its free improvisation and its instrumentation of almost sacred purity, Letters to Handenberg is a release highly recommanded to be discovered.”
Written In Music“A timeless masterpiece without borders.”
Moors Magazine
DESCRIPTION
During the first ten years of his career, lutenist and composer Tristan Driessens mainly devoted himself to the classical music of the Ottoman court. In 2011 he founded the acclaimed Lâmekân Ensemble, with which he recorded four albums, gave performances in Europe, Turkey and Central Asia and collaborated with masters such as Kudsi Erguner and Derya Türkan. After becoming an accomplished musician in Istanbul under the supervision of Necati Çelik, Tristan Driessens returned home in 2016. He founded Soolmaan, an ensemble with varying line-ups for which he initially wrote instrumental compositions reflecting his multi-sides identity.
In the album Letters to Handenberg (Homerecords, 2017), the city of Istanbul is present as a common thread: with compositions rooted in the modal music of the East, Tristan Driessens creates a dialogue with his homeland, intertwining elements from jazz and folk music. Het Nieuwsblad described the music of Letters to Handenberg as ‘oriental chamber jazz’.
In 2022, Tristan Driessens wrote a cycle of new compositions as part of his creative trajectory as an artist-in-residence and ‘Creator’ at the Concertgebouw of Bruges. For this occasion, Soolmaan became a six piece line-up with musicians coming from Greece, Turkey, Luxembourg, Italy and Belgium. The Soolmaan Sextet consists of the Belgian jazz saxophonist and flutenist Nathan Daems, the Greek ney virtuoso, pianist and singer Christos Barbas, percussion masters Andrea Piccioni and Levent Yildirim and cellist from Luxemburg Annemie Osborne. The album Kashgul (Seyir Muzik, 2023) presents compositions inspired by Sufism and the music from India, Persia and the Ottoman empire.
