Joost Willemze releases his new album Rhapsodos on March 13 on 7 Mountain Records. In his liner notes to the album, Willemze says the album title refers to a professional traveling musician and storyteller in ancient Greece who performed epic poetry such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, often accompanying the performance on the lyre. “[These singer-bards] were not composers in the modern sense, but performers who worked with existing material and gave it new life through interpretation,” Willemze says. “With this recording, I step into the role of a rhapsodos today, using the harp as my lyre and weaving the pieces into one continuous journey of stories expressed in sound.”
Rhapsodos includes premiere recordings of works by Anne-Maartje Lemereis, Carlos Micháns, and Amin Tafreshi, along with pieces by Caroline Lizotte, Guillaume Connesson, Marcel Grandjany, and Pearl Chertok. The album will be available on major streaming platforms and as a physical CD via Willemze’s website.
