Milan W & The Tulnic Ensemble of Avram Iancu
An all-women community who play the tulnic reside in the Apuseni Mountains. A tulnic is an archaic wooden aerophone instrument, up to three meters long, handcrafted from spruce. Its sound resonance is influenced by how dry or wet the wood is. Before playing the tulnic, the performers from the Avram Iancu village wet it in the river, finding the optimal level of wetness to emit the strongest sounds proves to be a challenge sometimes.
Historically, the tulnic began as a communication tool, being used for signalling the army to battle, ringing the bell, signaling shepherds, etc., and its musical valences appeared in the 19th century. Its sound was rarely recorded, being one of the few wind instruments for which there are almost no compositions.
Milan Warmoeskerken is an Antwerp based electronic music producer, active on the scene for almost a decade. He released several albums more than four years ago on imprints such as Jj funhouse, BAKK and Ekster. He has been making electronic music ever since he came in contact with it and has studied jazz guitar in his childhood. Besides running his solo project, Milan has been active with various bands in Belgium. His latest solo album, Leave Another Day, will be released in October at Stroom.
A composition in a modern, electroacoustic key for the tulnic was composed by the Belgian artist Milan W, in collaboration with the DJ and curator Dragoș Rusu for EUROPALIA festival, deconstructing and recomposing the tulnic sound in real time, using the synthesizer, and applying the whole sound spectre to new palettes of sounds, adapted to the archaic sounds that the tulnic is capable of reproducing.
For the first time in Romania, the ensemble of the 6 musicians: Maria Coroiu, Lenuța Fiț, Titiana Drăgoi, Eugenia Gavră, Mihaela Lazăr, Ramona Pogan and the producer Milan W will reunite on
September 12 on the open stage of the
TNB Amphitheater and on
September 15 at
Bastionul Țesătorilor in Brașov, for two unique concerts.
