A Fine Companion
release date: January 24, 2024
A Fine Companion is an album of newly-composed settings of troubadour songs and texts, written in a dream-pop/shoegaze/psychedelic rock style for an amplified combination of medieval and new instruments.
The texts of this project were chosen by Charles Mueller (composer) and the ensemble, with a focus on troubadour lyrics 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 genre. The unbridled sensuality of the arrangements create space for a raw experience that inspires a visceral reaction in the listener. Mueller has used pre-existing troubadour music as a melodic and modal prompt on a number of pieces, with direct quotations organically morphing as if in an inspired game of telephone.
Credits
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Tracy Cowart
voice, harps, hurdy-gurdy, percussion
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Jim Hopkins
synthesizers, Rhodes, harmonium
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Cameron LeCrone
drum set
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Ben Matus
voice, recorders, dulcian, hümmelchen, ukelele
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Charles Mueller
composer, guitar, bass guitar, glockenspiel
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Sian Ricketts
voice, douçaines, recorders
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Niccolo Seligmann
vielles, viola a chiavi, psaltery, gittern, viola da gamba, percussion
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Ellie Sutherland
voice