Aquabella

AQUABELLA - EINZIGARTIG WEIBLICHE WELTMUSIK!
AQUABELLA haben sich in den vergangenen 10 Jahren ein weltumspannendes Repertoire von Songs in über 20 Sprachen angeeignet. Wunderbar leicht entströmen ihren Kehlen ungewöhnliche Vokaltechniken, die das Publikum binnen Sekunden in fernste Kulturen versetzen. Laut Besuchern ihrer Konzerte sind Aquabella "gnadenlos gut", "Weltklasse" und "berauschend mit Sogwirkung". Man hat ein "Gänsehautgefühl" und fühlt sich von einem "furiosen Konzertabend köstlich unterhalten".
Unique ensemble present the world's music a cappella, are all very different but still form a unified whole .. that's AQUABELLA.
The Berlin ensemble has been amassed a unique repertoire of traditional vocal music from all over the world in the process .. songs in more than twenty languages. What started out as curiosity about the sound of Bulgarian women's choirs soon became a search for songs and sounds from all over the globe. Ever since, the singers have continually studied new vocal techniques such as overtone singing or yodelling. The versatility and wealth of qualities that distinguish their voices come in just as handy here as the extraordinary vocal range each member of the ensemble possesses. They sing, play and dance tunes and stories about people who could be living right around the corner or at the other end of the world. On stage they are proud, sensual, elegant and absorbed, or wild and full of high spirits. AQUABELLA fascinate and seduce their audiences, transporting them to a timeless region that very soon becomes an irresistible vortex. They're everything at once .. river, rain, lake and waterfall!
“Sonho meu – My Dream” the new program!
Dreams of happiness, dreams that get lost, dreams that come true – with hypnotizing fervour, AQUABELLA take you to a world where everything seems possible. Melodies of nearly every continent, always sung in their original languages, are embedded in the unparalleled AQUABELLA sound.
The virtuoso vocalists bring a Bulgarian women’s choir powerfully to life, chant a meditative Lord’s Prayer in Kiswahili and expand their repertoire with catchy World Music tunes like “Aisha” and “Chan Chan”.
In the process, they draw from the enormous range of pitch, mutability and wealth of tonal colour each of their voices has to offer. But not only that: In their stage programme they also surprise their listeners with something to look at by employing the arts of dance and acting; they’re funny, their choreographies breathtakingly precise.
The use of percussion instruments such as the udu and cajon transports the audience into the respective cultures, whose rhythms seep into the very depths of the soul. They recount, call out, whisper and sing the great dreams of mankind, thus fulfilling their own very personal dream of an intercultural journey, borne solely on the wings of their unique vocal cords.
In overflowing concert halls, the women of AQUABELLA captivate their audiences with accomplished mastery and sweeping passion. They are stylistically confident, refreshingly natural and elegant. AQUABELLA conjure up dream worlds and spellbind the public, which “wants to run home, pack its suitcases and set off in search of this music’s origins”.
The recipients of the 1999 Folkförderpreis (annual German folk music award), AQUABELLA tour Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland with two concert programmes (“Sonho meu” and the winter programme “Kykellia”), performing about fifty times a year.
Their concerts are moderated in German, French or English as requested.
Press:
“They are so perfect, you can hardly believe that it’s all really live. No wonder the public got one attack of goose bumps after another.” (Suhler Zeitung)
“With temperament, great radiant power, wit and apparently inexhaustible inventiveness” (Sächsische Zeitung)
“… if there was a prize for the most variegated World Music, Aquabella would win it … choice percussion instruments … beautifully narrative elements…” (Koblenz)
KYKELLIA .. or the story of Christmas
For at least 10,000 years humankind has celebrated and feared the winter solstice. In almost every culture on Earth whose ancient lore told of sun standing still this period has very great, and indeed magical significance. The origin of the festival is the primeval, human fear of increasing darkness and the recurrent anxiety as to whether nature would ever regain its fruitfulness. And so, the turn of the year also became a time of oaths and customs designed to appease the gods and drive out evil spirits.
One of the oldest winter rituals is the Egyptian festival of Kikellia, the festival that gave this extraordinary CD its title. On 25th December the ancient Egyptians celebrated the birth of the god of light, Horus, who was born of Isis in the darkness in order to awaken the murdered god of fertility, Osiris. The image of the mother god Isis with the young Horus on her lap became a prototype for depictions of Mary and the infant Jesus. At the time of Jesus.. birth Kikellia was celebrated not just in Egypt, but throughout the Mediterranean and Near East. Like the ..raw nights.. of the Germanic tribes, it lasted 12 days, ending on 6th January, the day of the first sowing. From pagan Rome it spread out across all of Europe. The Christians subsequently adopted the tradition and ever since have celebrated the birth of the Saviour at this time.