Das internationale Ensemble Merope bringt Ende Februar mit “Salos” ein Album heraus, dessen eigens komponierte Songs wie schon auf einigen seiner Vorgänger auf Motiven traditioneller litauischer Musik aufbauen. Mit einigen Gastmusikern und einem somit üppigen Repertoir an Klangquellen – Stimme (solo und Chor), Gitarrem Streicher, Flöten, Moog, andere Synthies und Elektronik – wird eine folkig ambiente Musik erzeugt, die in ihrem Wesen oftmals etherisch anmutet. “Salos” erscheint in allen gängigen Formaten beim hauseigenen Granvat-Label in Kooperation mit Stroom.
“As a lucid blue-white member of the Pleiades open star cluster, Merope is a fourth magnitude star living approximately three hundred eighty light years from Earth. A bit closer to home we find another Merope, a Belgian – Lithuanian based group of audacious musicians: Bert Cools, Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, and Jean-Christophe Bonnafous. Merope’s fourth album Salos, Lithuanian for ‘islands’, is an off-map archipelago of seven songs. Special guest sailing along Salos is the Vilnius Chamber Choir Jauna Muzika, a nebula of voices conducted by Vaclovas Augustinas who’s compositional works contribute to the sonorous biosphere.
Lithuanian folk songs echoes throughout Merope’s cosmogony, via metamorphosis, ancient minimalistic songs intertwine with contemporary compositions giving birth to a mangrove of peculiar sonic expressions. On Salos they continue to explore their passion for ancestral heritage by uprooting with an almost archeological anima obsolete songs and tales about animal and human connection, bees gathering honey, speckled ducks, falcon grief, copper gates, winter solstice and summer snow.” (Granvat / Stroom)