At the age of 22, Anne-Lisett Rebane and Katariina Kivi (Duo Ruut) play and compose small minimalist nuggets on one and the same traditional 42-string instrument (the kannel) and thus revisit, with two voices and four hands, Estonian folklore . Portrait.
Duo Ruut is first of all these voices in unison, those of Anne-Lisett Rebane and Katariina Kivi, who grew up and still live today by the Baltic Sea, in Tallinn, the capital and cultural center of Estonia. A very young country, independent since 1991.
Duo Ruut is also a kannel, an Estonian zither, which these two students take pleasure in experimenting with four hands, one in front of the other.
At 22, Anne-Lisett and Katarina have already created their own style: they play and compose in a new way, on one of the oldest traditional instruments in the country, small minimalist nuggets. Original music therefore, which comes to serve texts, sometimes secular, drawn from Estonian folklore.
Duo Ruut, it’s an album, tuule sonad (2019), and an EP, released in 2021, with an evocative title: Kulla kerguseks“golden light” in French.
Anne-Lisette and Katarina have truly illuminated with their presence, five evenings in a row, the 44th Transmusicales of Rennes. By the way in which they fire any wood with their instrument (they hit it like a percussion, strike or pluck the strings, play it with a bow); by their connection, palpable; by their synchronization; by their humor also when they express themselves between the pieces.
I met them one morning in December, in the press area of the festival and they told me their story: an Estonian story of songs, friendship and folklore.
SessionLab by Hortense Volle : a conversation in complete privacy and in 3D audio (spatialized sound). A podcast to listen to, preferably, with headphones.
Realization : Benjamin Sarralie
3D mixing : Fabien Mugneret
Production : RFI Lab
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Titles broadcast:
► Single: Liisa Pehmes Sules (2022)
► Excerpts from Kulla kerguseks (Duo Ruut Music – 2021) : Nightingale
► Excerpts from tuule sonad(2019) : Kost Laaluq Saaduq ; Kuhjalooja ; Kiigel Kartlik ; Tuule Sonad ; A Sulased ; Ema Haual ; Lind Lohutamas ; Meremehe Laul ; Valiad Karja Kaia ; Huiked
And also :
► Extract of Mu isamaa on minu armin 2014, at Laulupidu, the Estonian Song Festival. The Laulupidu is one of the biggest amateur song festivals in the world. It is held every five years on the Lauluväljak, in Tallinn, at the same time as the Estonian Dance Festival.
► Excerpt from a giant choir to mark, in 2019, the 150th anniversary of Laulupidu.
► Excerpt from the title Koit by the Estonian composer Heino Eller (1887-1970).