Amorroma is a Belgian acoustic folk music duo of the present with roots in traditional European folk-dance music. The group was founded by Jowan Merckx in 2000, and consists of himself (

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

, singer,

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

) and Sarah Ridy (

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

). Amorroma gives concerts as a duo but can also give concerts as a trio, quartet, quintet and sextet. The other members of the group are Vincent Noiret double bass, Maarten Decombel guitar, Elly Aerden singer and Toon van Mierlo

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, saxophone. All musicians hold qualifications from the academy of music. Jowan Merckx obtained his recorder degree at the Lemmensinstituut in 1996 and Sarah Ridy obtained her harp degree at the College of Music in 2003 and her Baroque harp performance degree at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag in 2006 and her master's degree in 2009. Prior to Amorroma, they were members of a group with Gwenaël Micault, Rheidun Schlesinger and Bert van Reeth. Bert van Reeth has arranged many pieces for Amorroma. All melodies are composed by Jowan Merckx. In the music is the

used as a main musical instrument, with makes the music of Amorroma unique. Amorroma has a programme of dancemusic with a singer too. This programme is based on poems, written by Jowan Merckx and traditional French lyrics, with music composed by Jowan Merckx. The name Amorroma consists of the two words Amor and Roma. For the Cathars these words have a contradiction. Amorroma uses this theme for her music to show all different feelings with form part of human being. The music is suitable for dancing and to listen to. Amorroma gives concerts at festivals, schools and folk-dance balls.

Les Tisserands

Amorroma takes part in the musical program Les Tisserands with vocal-music group Zefiro Torna and jazz duo Traces. The program is related to the religion grouping Cathars of the Middle Ages. The name Les Tisserands means weavers, the occupation that they often were practising. This musical program is from the present with influences of the middle ages, the renaissance, the

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

, jazz and folk. In the music are medieval lyrics used with some original melodies and some melodies are composed by Els van Laethem. All instrumental melodies are composed by Jowan Merckx.

musicians AmorRoma

*Jowan Merckx: recorders,

whistles Whistling without the use of an artificial whistle is achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips, usually after applying moisture (licking one's lips or placing water upon them) and then blowing or sucking air through the space. The a ...

, high

of Central France, gaïta,

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

, percussion, vocals *Sarah Ridy: triple harp *Vincent Noiret: double bass *Elly Aerden: vocals *Maarten Decombel: mandola, guitar, vocals *Toon van Mierlo: uilleann pipes, low

of Central France,

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

* Tristan Driessens: old Turkisch oud

musicians Les Tisserands

AmorRoma with Bert van Reeth Zefiro Torna *Els van Laethem: singer *Jurgen de Bruyn:

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

*Liam Fennelly: viola da gamba,

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

Traces *Philippe Laloy:

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

*Vincent Noiret:

contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

*Rheidun Schlesinger

Discography

* Merci, Jules (2014) * Chants d'amour et de mort en Wallonie (2013) * Carrousel (2011) * La-bas dans ces Vallons (2010) * Les Tisserands (2006) * Balance (2005) * Carduelis (2003) * Op Voyage (2000)

Reviews

Op Voyage (Folk World)

External links

Official websiteMajestic StudioAmorroma My Spaceyoutube Amorroma Duo, Heureux qui comme Ulysse
{{Authority control Belgian folk music groups World music groups