Trezz Palombas Toasaves & Raphaël De Cock

• 1 Trezz Palombas Part I 08:22
• 2 Trezz Palombas Part II 05:31
• 3 Trezz Palombas Part III 04:25
• 4 Trezz Palombas Part IV 05:04
• 5 Trezz Palombas Part V 04:47
• Total Runtime 28:09

Info for Trezz Palombas

Trezz Palombas brings a compilation of several versions of the same ballad found all over Europe and beyond combining versions of the “Cancionero del Franco Rico” or “Romance de Isabel” (Spain, Portugal) with “El Maurico Franco – Tres palombas van volando” (Sephardic) and finally the “Ballade van Serolewijn” or “Heer Halewijn” (Flanders and The Netherlands)

We start our “ballade” from the East with historically probably the older known versions (sephardic =< 1499 AD) , over Spanish and Portuguese versions including from the Azores and Madeira which are still sung even today, to orally transmitted versions collected since 1836 in Flanders and Dutch speaking areas. The Flemish versions appear to have maintained most elements of the entire story with some intriguing ancient Celtic and Germanic elements. Interestingly a group of Flemish settlers where the first to establish a foothold on the Azorean island Ilha de Faial in 1468 AD, and hence the name of Flamengos Valley, but there was also a Flemish settlement in Ilha de São Jorge since 1480. The fertile soils and temperate climate also attracted Flemish people to Ilha de São Miguel. Did these Flemish settlers introduce the ballad in the area, or did the Portuguese or the Sephardi? Because last but not least and to close this “balladic” cycle, several important Portuguese-Jewish families settled in the Azores in the 15th century, shortly after the islands were discovered. Portuguese Jews fled from mainland Portugal to the Azores to escape the Portuguese Inquisition and even some Moors were exiled to the islands. Raphaël De Cock

Eugénie De Mey, vocals
Raphaël De Cock, vocals, bagpipes, Jew’s harp
Toasaves
Tristan Driessens, oud, lavta, artistic direction

Toasaves
is a Belgian music collective with a fascination for medieval Flemish song and its relationship to both Early Music – Trecento, Ars Nova and Flemish Polyphony – and modal music from the East.

Toasaves is phonetic and means “home land” in the Antwerp accent. The ensemble was founded by oud player and musicologist Tristan Driessens and brings together a dozen artists from different countries and traditions, each with a broad artistic background and expertise. In collaboration with Brussels cultural associations Muziekpublique and Seyir Muzik,

Toasaves recorded their debut album in the spring of 2021, which will be presented to the public early next year.

In their first project “Naar de Roots van Wannes” Toasaves starts from the Groot Liedboek of Wannes van de Velde (1937-2008), the singer-artist who breathed new life into the oldest surviving Flemish ballads. Together with multi-instrumentalist Raphaël De Cock, composer Dick van der Harst and modern troubadour Michaël Grébil, Tristan Driessens wrote new arrangements of anonymous medieval songs as well as original work by Van de Velde. It goes without saying that the dialogue with Eastern music culture, which runs like a thread through Driessens’ career, was not avoided. In keeping with the adventurous spirit of Wannes van de Velde, Toasaves sees in the exploration of cultural heterogeneity a wealth of possibilities that can reveal and reinforce the primal power of Early Music repertoires from a new perspective.

The rich instruments in combination with the unorthodox singing styles of Toasaves fulfill a connecting function in this. Thanks to virtuoso performances on Early Music instruments from both East and West – Medieval flutes, drums, cisters and fiddles, Oriental violins, lutes and frame drums, hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes, Indian dilruba and bansuri, etc …, new light is shed on musical traditions that, in time and space separated from each other, translate the same poetic and musical secrets. Starting from the folk repertoire of Wannes van de Velde’s Groot Liedboek, Toasaves joins in with the first masters of Early Music – Landini, Thomas Fabri, Guillaume de Machaut, … and the classical and popular music genres from the Greek islands, the Sephardic Diaspora, the Black Sea and the Ottoman Court.

Raphaël De Cock
is a multi-instrumentalist and singer of traditional singing styles and he is involved in various Belgian as well as international music projects. He also regularly gives workshops and courses. ​

Raphael discovered the Irish bagpipes, the uilleann pipes, in 1989. In those days he also discovered Tuvan throat singing and overtone singing. This was the start of a lifetime adventure and search for musical instruments and vocal timbres.

This album contains no booklet.