Ensemble Apotropaïk - Bella Donna (2023)

This CD, composed between the mountains and valleys of the Map of the Tender, forms a triptych whose three tutelary figures are temperance, charm and torment.
In the first song, one of the rare attested by the hand of a woman, the Countess of Die, the voice of Clémence Niclas rises and spreads without artificiality within a cathedral acoustic. This monody of a betrayed woman who dares to express it thus in the Middle Ages could be a crosstalk which does not speak its name. The Countessa de Dia is certainly alone in singing her canso but the nymph Echo supports her wherever she goes, along her melodic line.

In a voice devoid of affectation that some lyrical voices sometimes adopt with a borrowed tune, the flautist sings with conviction a cappella a tune that resurfaces from the depths of the ages.

The vocal variegation suggests the magic of the change of scenery specific to the Middle Ages. Jacques Le Goff's formula on this power of the medieval period is then easily justified. The material voice of the flautist is distinguished from that of professional singers whose voices are refined by a sharpened technique. Here, authenticity prevails and the choice is relevant.
Indeed, would it not be anachronistic to sing troubadour arias with an operatic voice when opera was not yet even a sweet idea and was dormant, destined to awaken much later in the field of possibilities ?
The songs give a carnal image, resurrected from medieval social reality. La Bella Donna, alternately a lady and a belladonna, is at the heart of an era that gives little space to women and their voices. They could not sing in a church: being the origin of sin, the risk was too great!

We then hear a piece by the famous troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn: flute, strings and percussion combine to take us on a folkloric journey, during a village dance or in a clearing. The heady rhythm responds to the sweetness of the Gothic harp and the medieval lute.

In Santa Maria Leva, we hear the light, clear and precise voice of the flautist with soothing high notes. Everything has a sacred dimension, the expressive modulations and the sonic halo that envelops us.

Then comes a song from the one who “likes to heckle”, Guillaume de Machaut. It is with character that voices and instruments come together and come together, the accents underline the emotions of the smitten poet, the exquisite vocal alterations sing the pangs of courtly love, fin’amor.

Certain scores or certain texts, sometimes a single stanza long, were found in the Codex de Faenza, the Codex de Chantilly or even the Codex Rossi. We can only admire this serious research work to revive the memory of the voices that have been silenced. Between musical and archival deciphering, we perceive the versatility of the artists, both musicians, performers and archaeologists. And wasn’t this very versatility that of trouvères, troubadours and minstrels?

The vocalizations draw the melismas of the semitones which evoke the mystery of the Lady of the Unicorn and her only desire.
Shimmering harmonies, varied musical texture, the voice seems to flow like the wave between the rocks of the plucked strings and the wind that wells up from the bowed fiddle.

Interpretation of fragments, rewriting, covers, perfect fifths, the Middle Ages reinvented and reinvested, this is all that ApotropaïK gives us to hear in this magnificent recording published by Editions des abbesses.
Clémence Niclas sings and plays medieval recorders, Louise Bouedo plays the bowed fiddle, Marie-Domitille Murez plays the Gothic harp while Clément Stagnol plays the medieval lute.

This disc is both original and brilliant, it makes us hear voices, instruments and bygone texts, it revives the colors and musical variety of the Middle Ages with subtlety and alchemy. Change of scenery guaranteed!