Out on STROOM 22nd of January Holsen & Cassiers ‘Walking In Circles
Norwegian trumpeter Hilde Marie Holsen and Belgian singer Lynn Cassiers met for the first time at the ‘Match&Fuse’ event in Dublin 2017. Both invited as representatives for their respective countries, they got the opportunity to work together for 5 days. The collaboration felt extremely natural and resulted in a success on the night of performance. Turned out Hilde and Lynn share a similar approach to improvised music where they transform effortlessly a single instrument into a world of ambient sounds. With their distinctive electronic set ups, they discovered each others musical propositions, solidly built during their solo careers over the years.
One year after Match&Fuse the duo continued their artistic quest, taking a week to themselves in Oslo to leave some traces of their work. They concluded with a performance for Fritt Fall concert series at the Oslo Kulturhuset.
The music of Holsen/Cassiers results in a fascinating sound magma that constructs itself starting from nothing but a breath, a singular sound or gesture. Quickly these initial sounds transform themselves into the most enchanting sound textures. Within these crafty soundscapes Holsen’s unique gentle melodies emerge to surface and go hand in hand with Cassiers’ fragile bits of songs and words, offering the listener a lead through an etheric dreamworld. It’s a moving and poetic journey that can sound at once coldly electronic, seemingly abstract, and at once heartwarmingly human.
On Hilde’s Solo work:
«The end result is music that is uniquely individual and highly distinctive. Forget any comparisons, Holsen is without parallel. Even more so than Ask did, Lazuli signals the arrival of a bright new star.»
– John Eyles, All About Jazz
«But the album’s depth and seriousness means it projects inwards rather than outwards. Even on headphones at full volume, you want to listen harder, to follow the trailing off sounds as they sink lower into the night.»
– Nina Power, The Wire
On Lynn’s Solo work:
“…One of the most remarkable voices of our Improv Scene…”(Enola magazine, read on: ‘press’)
“…Cassiers is brilliant. She really couldn’t care less about genres and vested expectations: she creates her own sonic universe in which avant-garde pop (think Laurie Anderson), traditional jazz and free improv meet, in a wonderful mixture that avoids all the traps of doing this..”(freeJazzBlog)
Lynn Cassiers 