Idrîsî Ensemble

Idrîsî Ensemble is the wildly inventive group founded by Corsican composer Thomas Fournil. Honouring and refreshing endangered and UNESCO-protected singing traditions, they journey from Corsican polyphony to near-lost medieval chant in a hypnotic blend of female voices drawn from classical, pop, jazz and multinational folk traditions.

At the heart of this Mediterranean program features Song of the Sibyl , a haunting medieval prophecy that has survived, almost unbroken, since the Middle Ages. Following a recent world premiere, Ellinida Sibylla reunites that ancient melody with the female, pagan voice it once displaced – an act of musical restoration centuries in the making.

Elsewhere throughout the program, fierce Corsican paghjella singing, plaintive laments, and songs from Epirus and Finland trace a hidden map of the Mediterranean's shared, tangled past.