Sparkling overtones:
International Folk String Quartet Tokso presents new album
When the 4 Tokso ladies from 3 different parts of Europe come together and unite their sounds, no less than
53 strings start vibrating in intense interaction. The unconventional string quartet hereby presents their new
album Cor Amant.
Tokso is a String Quartet, and yet not a String Quartet, with a unique kind of sound never heard before.
Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player and cellist Anne Hytta and Sigrun Eng, known from their trio Slagr,
founded Tokso 6 years ago with the internationally acclaimed Greek Lira player Kelly Thoma, known from
her work in Ross Daly ensemble, and French nyckelharpa player Eléonore Billy, playing the Swedish folk
instrument with such virtuosity that she’s named ”French queen of the nyckelharpa”, when they met at a
festival in Oslo.
It was true love from their first bow stroke on the strings; the tones sparked in the air and hit the walls
from all angles. As they lifted their eyes from their instruments and looked at each other, they instantly
knew, without speaking, that this was music that needed to be heard by the people! The recent years they
have been touring Norway, France and Greece.
The Tokso musicians perform music on string instruments from European traditions, such as the
Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle, the Swedish Nyckelharpa – a keyed string instrument and the Cretan Lira.
All of these instruments share the feature of sympathetic strings, resulting in a very rich and diverse
sound. All in all, 53 strings are in motion when the Tokso ladies set their bows to the strings! Tokso has
the cello in common with an ordinary string quartet, adding depth and grounding to the sound. The Tokso
music is created by all members in the quartet, and is coloured by the very different influences of the 4
ladies, from Greek power and temperament, Nordic melancholia to French elegance.
Kelly and Anne are musicians with respectively Cretan and Norwegian traditional music as their musical
mother tongues. Both have also worked with lots of musicians from other countries, giving them insight in
what binds traditions and music together. French Eléonore started playing the classical violin, but from
early on she got interested in folk music, and has acquired the Swedish nyckelharpa with her own French
touch. Developing her own musical style, she takes part in lots of musical and artistic collaborations, and
with her open attitude to her instrument and music she adds a strong and diverse palette of sound to the
quartet. Leonor Palazzo is a new recruit in Tokso and replaces the cellist Sigrun since April 2015. Leonor
comes from Brussels with a classical background but plays mostly Swedish folk music and baroque music
nowadays, as she has been living in Gothenburg for 6 years.
The album title Cor Amant is Latin and means loving, glowing hearts. And for sure – the Tokso members
all have loving hearts for each other as individuals and each other’s music, and appreciation of their
diversity and tolerance for abilities in one musician untranslatable for another musician. In Tokso this is
both the limitation and the potential for music that doesn’t sound like anything else anyone has heard.
Pieces like the lively Atherina, a Greek word meaning little fish swimming here and there in a steam, just
like the Tokso members follow Kelly in all the little motives throughout the tune; the Norwegian lullaby So
Ro, calm and meditative as a mother’s singing for her child; the dark, gloomy Frealaus, based on an old
Norse morbid tale; and the sizzling energetic Liberty, are all included on the Cor Amant album, consisting
in total of 10 pieces by the quartet.
The album is released on their own label Hush Music, and is digitally distributed via indigoboom.com. Cor
Amant is for sale via the website www.toksoquartet.com.
For press release, press photos, videos, sound: www.toksoquartet.com
For interviews:
Anne Hytta – phone +47 901 47 472, post@annehytta.com
Leonor Palazzo – phone +46 73 559 24 93 leonor.palazzo@gmail.com
Eléonore Billy – phone +33 611 34 6720, eleonore_billy@yahoo.fr
Kelly Thoma – phone +30 697 2881265, kellythoma@yahoo.com