Isabelle de Spoelberch - Appel a la Source (2021)

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 and Robin Huw Bowen and studied instrument making at the Fachschule für Streich und Zupfinstrumentbau in Hallstatt, Austria.

On her debut double 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 the harpist enters into a dialogue with the Armenian duduk, the Turkish saz or the Persian tombak. The music of 'Appel à la Source' pays tribute to what music from different corners of the world 'à la source' have in common. Isabelle de Spoelberch 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.

Musicians
Driessens, Tristan: oud, vocals
Emre Gültekin: baglama, diwan saz, yayli saz, üç telli, Afghan rebab, bendir, vocals
Hovanissian, Vardan: duduk
Isabelle de Spoelberch: Celtic harp, kantele, santur, frame drums, Tibetan bowl

Guest musician
Bijan Chemirani: daf, tombak
Franz Reschenhofer: poetry reading
Jeroen Geerinck: guitar, bodhran
Malabika Brahma: vocals
Moussa Niang: vocals
owan Merckx: recorders
Raphaël De Cock: uilleann pipes, overtone singing
Sanjay Khyapa: dupki
Vincent Noiret: double bass

Tracklist:
1 01. Isabelle de Spoelberch - Solo Harp Improvisation I (03:55)
1 02. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Emre Gültekin - Utopie (05:08)
1 03. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Emre Gültekin - Freudenfest des Lebens (03:30)
1 04. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Tristan Driessens, Emre Gültekin - Cig a chwrw (04:20)
1 05. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Emre Gültekin - Spiegel in mir Leuchtet zu dir (02:25)
1 06. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Vardan Hovanissian - Harp and Duduk Dialogue I (06:27)
1 07. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Vardan Hovanissian, Tristan Driessens, Emre Gültekin - Sayyid Dance N° 10 (04:48)
1 08. Isabelle de Spoelberch - Solo Harp Improvisation II (03:00)
1 09. Isabelle de Spoelberch - La Complainte de la Blanche Biche (02:00)
1 10. Isabelle de Spoelberch - Le Souffle d Éole (03:24)
2 01. Isabelle de Spoelberch - Solo Harp Improvisation III (Parfum d eau) (04:27)
2 02. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Vardan Hovanissian - Harp and Duduk Dialogue II (05:19)
2 03. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Vardan Hovanissian, Tristan Driessens - Prière pour l Eau (04:58)
2 04. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Emre Gültekin - Dilki doya (06:07)
2 05. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Tristan Driessens, Emre Gültekin - Appel à la Source (02:40)
2 06. Isabelle de Spoelberch - Solo Harp Improvisation IV (03:56)
2 07. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Vardan Hovanissian - Lève les yeux (04:05)
2 08. Isabelle de Spoelberch, Tristan Driessens, Emre Gültekin - Ohm (05:00)