“A total game-changer. This is no escapist nostalgia but a living, exploratory art of real power.”
James Weeks, EXAUDI / Durham Vocal Festival
“Idrîsî Ensemble is transforming the scene with gripping, deeply researched performances - unlike anything else I've heard.”
Jack Bazalgette, Through the Noise / Cheltenham Music Festival
“A useful corrective to the stereotyping of medieval music as smooth, pious and sleepy.”
Hugh Morris, The Guardian
“Brilliant communicators and exquisite performers”
Cathy Boyes, Brighton Early Music Festival
“Utterly mesmerising, and exactly the kind of sound that today’s audience is ready to embrace.”
Thea Paraskevaides, Classical Unlocked / ARTISTS&
“In a fractured world, this is celebratory, healing and heartening music, with an ability to transcend and unite people.”
Wendyrosie Scott, journalist and anthropologist, Songlines / BBC World Music
“It was one of the most special, totally involving musical experiences I have had in a long time. An evening in the company of the Idrîsî Ensemble will surely detonate your ideas of what early music might sound like.”
Donald Macleod, broadcaster and BBC Radio 3 presenter
“Idrîsî Ensemble is one of the most exciting collectives at the moment. Watching them live makes me so emotional, and their ensemble is filled with so much musicality and so many unique voices!”
Jordan Rakei, award-winning singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist
Idrîsî Ensemble’s sound and philosophy upturn conventional understandings of this repertoire, bringing things of raw, unusual beauty and rarity to light. Their singing rests on a special kind of intimacy and ensemble virtuosity, with a profound sense of connection between performers that is akin to great string quartets. It has the heightened atmosphere of the most special performances, evoking something ancient and truthful that feels as if it has always been there, waiting to be discovered.
Benjamin Poore, writer & dramaturg
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ It’s a deeply moving experience, and the textured sound resonates in your bones as it would’ve done to those listening all those centuries ago.
Xenia Evans, What a Tune
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Idrîsî Ensemble’s recent concert at Koko was packed to the gills with a wildly enthusiastic audience […] they’ve created a programme that is connecting viscerally with modern listeners.
LEAHJ, A Young(ish) Perspective
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Davies is peerless in Vivaldi, but the Idrîsî Ensemble's ancient Mediterranean chants steal the show in a magically immersive evening”
Barry Creasy, Music OMH
“Idrîsî Ensemble yielded one of the most brilliant interpretations of trobairitz music I have ever heard. I can’t wait to hear what will follow from them.”
Clément Variéras, Radio Presenter (Paris)
