Our musicians in residence Lizabett Russo and Graeme Stephen spent their residency working towards the production of an album, together with five other musicians based all across Europe. The project, entitled Ensemble Eòrpa, explored ways to remotely connect through music, fostering global musical connections and serving as a think tank for lockdown working.

As part of Ensemble Eòrpa, we sat down via Zoom with the musicians involved to listen to them share knowledge on their instruments, traditions and experience of working digitally and collaboratively to create a new album. The discussions, lead by our Project Intern Roosje de Graaff and called Soapbox Talks in a nod towards the tradition of gifting soap, were released each week in the run up to the album launch and online concert with the musicians involved. Catch the trailer below!

Soapbox Talks are with interviewer Roosje de Graaff and - Lizabett Russo & Graeme Stephen (Scotland)....watch on Youtube here, or listen on Spotify hereOene van Geel (The Netherlands).......................watch on Youtube here, or listen on Spotify hereLucas McIntosh & Steve Brown (Scotland)..........watch on Youtube here, or listen on Spotify hereNedyalko Nedyalkov (Bulgaria)............................watch on Youtube here, or listen on Spotify hereMarius Mihalache (Romania)...............................watch on Youtube here, or listen on Spotify here Silke Eberhard (Germany)...................................watch on Youtube here, or listen on Spotify here

Index image credit: Lizabett Russo