The French duo Niseïs has released its second album Skugga, featuring traditional and early music from Sweden. The duo comprises Elodie Poirier (voice, nyckelharpa, and cello) and Anthony Castin (lever harp and traverso, with pedal harp on one track). Released Sept. 19, the album is distributed by L’Autre Distribution in France and is available as a digital album via Bandcamp and on major streaming platforms.
According to a press release, the album features a unique blend of the harp, nyckelharpa, traverso (baroque flute), and voice, in which the duo’s interpretation of the music is not fixed, but fluid. “Each piece is approached as a living breath, with great freedom of tone and contrast, like a ray of sunlight piercing the shadows of a thick, snowy forest: an echo of the North between [traditional] roots and [new] dreams, resonating in suspended dialogues,” the duo says.
Castin obtained his harp teaching certification at the Cefedem graduate school in Lyon after studying harp, flute, and musicology at the conservatory and university in Besançon. He currently teaches harp at the conservatory of Puy-en-Velay and frequently accompanies choirs and singers in the region. He also holds a diploma in traverso from the conservatory of St. Etienne.
Born into a musical family, Poirier composes and improvises music in many genres from around the world, including folk traditions as well as medieval, baroque, classical, and contemporary repertoire. She studied cello at the conservatory of Grenoble, traditional music and improvisation at the National School of Music, Dance, and Dramatic Art in Villeurbanne, medieval music and voice with Anne Delafosse and Dominique Vellard, and baroque music at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva.
Learn more on Niseïs’s website.
