KALIMAT

Here we have recorded some of the pieces we love most for the first time. This CD is a reflection of our duo and of its evolution, from making music together as beginners to creating programmes and projects together after completing our training.

We started making music as young and enthusiastic children, which meant we soon began to make music together. We were teenagers when we met the sisters Marie and Sophie Hallynck, cellist and harpist respectively, with whom we later studied; their duo was a special source of inspiration and motivation for us to play and perform more as a duo. Given that there are hardly any original works written for cello and harp, necessity obliges us not only to make transcriptions but also allows us to rewrite anything we like for our own combination of instruments.

It’s not only the harp that takes on different forms in our repertoire — you can also hear guitar, bells, piano, orchestra... The cello is sometimes said to be the instrument closest to the human voice, as can be heard in the cantabile lines of Song of the Birds, Kalimat, and the Vocalise. Our need to transcribe has prompted us to expand our musical world: Kalimat is a popular Arabic song made famous by Majida El Roumi, one of the great singers of the Arab world. Our version for harp and cello is based on her sung version with orchestra. We transcribed Moto Trankil, composed by Karim Baggili, a Belgian with Jordanian-Yugoslavian roots, from a guitar version. How wonderful to be able to extend the boundaries of our musical possibilities like this!