What do saffron, cinnamon, paprika, star aniseed, poppy-seed, coriander, rosemary, cumin or silphion, the lost spice of the Greeks and Romans, sound like?

Evelyn Huber and Mulo Francel, along with Quadro Nuevo and other musicians, set out to answer this intriguing question.
Like a rare wine or powerful music, spices preserve the beauty of a moment: sometimes sweet, sometimes piquant.
The music of the exceptional world music harpist Evelyn Huber and Quadro Nuevo’s saxophonist, Mulo Francel, will draw you into the world of spices.

 

 

During their many years of work together, both virtuosi have achieved international recognition through their sumptuous combination of instruments and spirited playing. Their "Tango Lyrico" CD is the winner of the German Jazz Award.

Evelyn Huber is entirely unique in the international music scene, unlocking fascinating and hitherto undreamed of rhythmic and sonic variety from the classical concert harp. Under her virtuoso hands, the instrument becomes a flamenco guitar, a drum or a lyre. During countless concert tours in Europe, Africa, North and South America she has worked with, among others, Giora Feidmann and Mstislav Rostropovich. She also teaches at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich and is guest professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Mulo Francel performs 200 concerts a year with the group Quadro Nuevo throughout the world. His CDs have stormed to number one in the jazz, world and pop music charts. Alongside Quadro Nuevo, his successful tango quartet, Mulo indulges his love for duo work with harp. The duo play only about fifty concerts a year, but just as intensively as with Quadro Nuevo, and they have released three CDs: Rendezvous, Tango Lyrico and Aventure for saxophone and harp.

Their album Songs of Spices is inspired by spices’ origins, and cultural associations. The musicians use characteristic ways of playing, styles and instruments for this. So the Chinese harp evokes star anise, the Latin American folk harp cocoa, the sansa the African grains of Paradise, the sitar and tabla ginger, and the lyre, long-lost silphium.