Isabelle de Spoelberch: celtic harp, kantele, Iranian santur, frame drums, Tibetan bowl, Vardan Hovanissian: Armenian duduk, Tristan Driessens: Turkish oud, vocals, Emre Gültekin: Turkish long neck lutes (bağlama, diwan saz, yaylı saz, üç telli), Afghan rabab, bendir, tombak, vocals.
Featuring: Bijan Chemirani: daf, tombak (2), Franz Reschenhofer: poetry reading (3), Malabika Brahma: vocals, Tibetan bowl (14, 18), Moussa Niang: vocals (13), Raphaël De Cock: uilleann pipes (4), overtone singing (10), Sanjay Khyapa: percussion (dupki) (7), Jowan Merckx: recorder (4), Jeroen Geerinck: guitar, percussion (bodhran) (4), Vincent Noiret: double bass (4).
DESCRIPTION:
Isabelle de Spoelberch was born into a family where music plays an important role in everyday life. During her childhood she fell in love with the harp and started cultivating a deep fascination with Celtic traditions and medieval music. She took harp lessons with Arianna Savall, Robin Huw Bowen and Dimitri Boekhoorn and studied instrument making at the Fachschule für Streich und Zupfinstrumentbau in Hallstatt, Austria.
On her debut album, the Celtic harp is the common thread through a journey of discovery along different roads and cultures. New compositions and traditional music are alternated with long improvisations in which Isabelle de Spoelberch enters into a dialogue with the Armenian duduk (Vardan Hovanissian), the Turkish saz (Emre Gültekin) or the Persian tombak (Bijan Chemirani). The music of Appel à la Source pays tribute to what music from different corners of the world ‘à la source’ have in common. The music on this album is inspired by Scandinavian mythology, shamanism, the four elements of nature, Eastern mysticism and the ancestral tradition of wandering singer-poets in Anatolia, Bengal and Senegal. All these influences are interwoven in a richly varied and mysterious album on which twelve guest musicians from seven different countries have contributed.
PRESS:
“Une musique sans mots, intuitive et libre, éclectique à l’image de nos vies et de nos amitiés”, écrit Isabelle de Spoelberch dans le livret. Et on entend réellement cet amour de la musique et de ceux qui la font dans les 18 plages de ce double album : il nous emmène, avec Isabelle et Cie, dans les méandres de l’onirisme et de la contemplation. Un appel à la source qui fait couler l’eau claire et la belle musique.
Le Soir (BE), Jean-Claude Vantroyen. read more“With the double album Appel à la Source, the Walloon harpist Isabelle de Spoelberch explores the rich sources of harp music. Accompanied by a trio consisting of Vardan Hovanissian, Tristan Driessens and Emre Gültekin, and assisted by twelve guest musicians from seven different countries, this is an album you won’t easily get tired of.”
Pop Magazine Heaven (NL), Eric van Domburg Scipio.“A serene musical world tour.”
Music Frames (NL), Mattie Poels. read more“This is a simply perfect record by a lady who was not only wonderfully surrounded during the recordings, but who also plays a homemade and beautifully sounding instrument and who knows how to write great melodies for it.”
Rootstime (BE), Dani Heyvaert. read more“Plenty of unusual combinations that turn out amazing. Especially when the flutes are playing or there is singing, the music takes on a great intensity.”
Trouw (NL), Mischa Andriessen.
