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.

Please help us continue this work by donating.

Listen to Interbeing on Spotify and watch the first video “Journey through the beech trees” here.

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. Read more.

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.

Accompanying 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