A restless collective of medieval experimentalists, the Flatbush-based band Alkemie recently gained recognition beyond Brooklyn with their soundtrack for the video game Pentiment (directed by Obsidian studios and published by Xbox). Locally and nationally, they have been presented by the Amherst Early Music Festival, Arizona Early Music Society, Brooklyn Public Library, Cambridge Society for Early Music, Capitol Early Music Series, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Johns Hopkins Program in Arts, Humanities & Health, Music Before 1800, and the European Early Music Network virtual Early Music Day festival.
For this entirely new program they collaborate with composer Charles Mueller and duo-led collective Freelance Nun to set some of the oldest folk music — troubadour songs and texts. Written in a dream-pop /shoegaze/ psychedelic rock style, these all-original arrangements feature an amplified combination of medieval and modern instruments. The lyrics were chosen with a focus on songs that expand or refute the standard tropes of chivalrous love by choosing poems from a feminine perspective, and by delving into the metaphysical and spiritual subsets of the troubadour world. Pre-existing troubadour music is used as a melodic and modal prompt on a number of pieces, with direct quotations organically morphing as if in an inspired game of telephone.
With Tracy Cowart (voice, electric harps, percussion), Jim Hopkins (keyboards), Cameron LeCrone (percussion), Ben Matus (voice, medieval bagpipes), Charles Mueller (composer & technical director; electric guitar, electric bass) Niccolo Seligmann (vielles, scheitholt, gittern, psaltery), Elisa Sutherland (voice), Sian Ricketts (voice, recorders, douçaines), and Spiff Wiegand (percussion, guitar)
This concert will be performed live in NYC on Friday, June 2 at 8:00 p.m. at the Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn. General admission is $25. For tickets and more information, please visit alkemie.org/fine-companion
Preview one of the songs here!
