Music and Arts
Interbeing is a multi-media project which celebrates traditional music and the beauty of the landscape in Romania - a way of life and landscape that is under threat.
Interbeing is a magical concept album that weaves together recordings of elders and traditional instruments with nature soundscapes in an electronic composition for the modern world. Accompanying film and photography brings the moving stories of the people and environmental challenges faced to life.
Artist Nico de Transilvania is the founder of Forests Without Frontiers and all profits from the album go towards regenerating this endangered landscape. You can also stream Interbeing film on Waterbear platform.
Please help us continue this work by purchasing our albums here. And read about Silvia and our project in Positive News.
Listen to Interbeing on Spotify and watch the album trailer here and our videos for the songs Journey through the beech trees and Săracă Inima Mea (My poor longing heart).
Interbeing won Cambridge Conservation Initiative's Endangered Landscapes Art Prize 2021/22.
The judging panel for the prize, Heather Ackroyd (Ackroyd & Harvey), Karen Thomas (Kettle’s Yard) and Tundi Agardi (Marine Conservation), unanimously agreed that the quality of engagement, production, and connection to the landscape and restoration was outstanding. Nico’s work brings different worlds together, champions traditional folk music at risk of being lost, engages sensitively with the community, and captures the rich and beautiful life of their forests. You can read more about it here and in our blog.
In 2023 we received a second grant from Cambridge Conservation Initiative to put together the live show and perform it at Fagaras Fest in the Carpathian mountains, where Silvia Dan lives. You can can read our blog about the trip and watch the video of the rehearsals and the live show here.
CREDITS
Produced and directed by Nicoleta Carpineanu (Nico de Transilvania), filmed by Razvan Leucea, edited by Alex Maxim (Monolit studio), album co-produced by Abstract Source and David Alexander Yeoman, photography by Marius Sumlea, artwork and design by Adam Freeland (using Midjourney AI) and Marius Bugeac. For a full list of contributing musicians, please see the Interbeing blog on Forests Without Frontiers website.
This is a Muzicã Without Frontiers Production for Forests Without Frontiers.
Full artist credits
Nico de Transilvania – Artistic Director, composer and producer
Silvia Dan – Granddaughter of Maria Cîrstoiu a famous folk singer
Vasile Stanciulescu – Flute player and 14-year-old daughter
David Alexander Yeoman – Piano and forest soundscape recordings
Abstract Source (Jules Dickens) – Sound editor, mixer and co-producer
Laurentiu Moise (Bucharest Radio Jazz Orchestra) – Saxophone
Paulo Profeti (Bucharest Radio Jazz Orchestra) - Trumpet
Andrew Ruhemann (Passion Pictures Founder/EP) – Film consultant
Jamie Catto (Faithless co-founder) – Music consultant
Marius Șumlea – Photographer
Răzvan Leucea & Alex Maxim (Monolit Studio) – Director of Photography & Editor
Song list
Nico takes you on a journey … through Nucsoara’s ancient beech forest
Săracă Inima Mea (My poor longing heart) - feat. Nico de Transilvania … a Romanian traditional doina passed to Nico from her grandmother, mother and auntie, which is about healing a broken heart through music and good company
Munte munte, brad frumos (Mountain mountain, beautiful pine tree) - feat. Silvia Dan … traditional doina of the area in which the singer is in intimate conversation with the pine tree
Copilărie (Childhood) - feat. Silvia Dan … encompassing all the musicians from the album, including snippets of local elder Silvia speaking of her childhood near the forests and two local youth on flute
Loom the concept for this song started in Nico’s kitchen while she was playing the spoons alongside David on the keys, combined with recordings from the 2019 Loom art installation from India’s Biennale
Cucu - Cuckoo feat. Silvia Dan … a song Silvia learned from her mother describing the cuckoo’s journey through the forests, leaving behind its babies to be looked after by other birds whilst it spreads its song
Nature Soundscape … recorded by David Alexander Yeoman in the forests and Nucsoara village