DESCRIPTION
A FINE COMPANION is an album of newly-composed settings of troubadour songs and texts, written in a dream-pop /shoegaze/ psychedelic rock style for an amplified combination of medieval and new instruments. The texts of this project were chosen by Charles Mueller (composer) and the ensemble, with a focus on troubadour lyrics that expand or refute the standard tropes of chivalrous love by choosing poems from a feminine perspective, and by delving into the metaphysical and spiritual subsets of the genre. The unbridled sensuality of the arrangements create space for a raw experience that inspires a visceral reaction in the listener. Mueller has used pre-existing troubadour music as a melodic and modal prompt on a number of pieces, with direct quotations organically morphing as if in an inspired game of telephone.
- 1 The Switch with Which One Switches Oneself
- 2 Love Is Like the Spark (Escoutatz!)
- 3 Seguin + Valensa
- 4 I Know a Lady
- 5 Judas
- 6 Nor
- 7 The Butterfly
- 8 (Find Yourself) a Fine Companion
- 9 D'aurenga
