Norwegian trumpeter Hilde Marie Holsen and Belgian vocalist Lynn Cassiers began their duo projects in September 2017 when they were invited as representatives for their respective countries at a Match&Fuse event in Dublin. Their aesthetics matched immediately as both Holsen and Cassiers like to improvise and transform the trumpet and the human voice into a world of ambient and noisy soundscapes, enhanced by their unique electronic set-ups.

A year after the successful Dublin performance, the duo went on another artistic retreat in Oslo, which was concluded with a performance in the Fritt Fall concert series at the Oslo Kulturhuset. Holsen and Cassiers’ debut album Walking In Circles was recorded during a residency and live concert at AB Salon in Brussels in January 2020.

Walking In Circles offers six short pieces, titled after the short poem: «today’s bright time is / opening /  some say / life stages are / walking in circles». Holsen and Cassiers’ pieces begin with a simple sound, breath, noise, or gesture, but quickly transform into layered and nuanced, intriguing melodic textures, balancing beautifully between the acoustic trumpet and the human voice and the live processed electronics. Holsen’s ethereal trumpet playing and her melodic ideas intensify Cassiers’ dreamy, fragile vocals and deepen the mysterious, sensual essence of these pieces.

Walking In Circles lasts only 33 minutes but already stresses the profound affinity between Holsen and Cassiers. Their music flows gently, melts organically fragments of melodies, noises and abstract sounds into imaginative and poetic soundscapes, and suggests a heartwarming, life-affirming vision. Waiting anxiously for more of this inspiring stuff from Holsen & Cassiers.

Eyal Hareuveni

Lynn Cassiers (v, objects, elec), Hilde Marie Holsen (tp, elec)