LISE MARTIN-LE CHÊNE
The expressive and captivating music of Lise's harp, which she sometimes accompanies with her soft voice, will bring you into a musical universe originated from the sources of the Alps, the Brittany and from cultures coming from all around the world.
Lise was born in Saxel, a village in Vallée Verte facing the peak of Miribel behind which Plaines-Joux and the Feufliâzhe are located. She is one of our child, indeed.
When she was a little girl, she used to come with her mother to the Feufliâzhe’s balls and dance workshops (at the time the dance teacher was Maryse Dubois, who since then has also started to play the harp). Maybe, who knows, it was thanks to these occasions that she could develop her taste for traditional music, rhythms and melodies among other genres.
First she learned to dance, then she studied harp in Geneva. At the age of 18 her destiny brought her to Brittany, the cradle of Celtic harp, where she improves her artistic practice and adds singing as a string ... to her harp. The inspiration comes, therefore, both from Savoy and Brittany with a musical opening that goes much further. Even if her compositions are issued thinking about landscapes of the two regions, she is capable to bring you in a musical universe drawn from the sources of the cultures of the entire world like, for example, Tibet’s mountains.
Her parents still live in Saxel and Lise returns from time to time to her village. She toured for the first time in the region in 2016, few concerts in Saxel, Habère-Poche, Taninges, Andilly and La Roche-sur-Foron. On this occasion, she even sang a capella a Sabaudia group’s collected version of Joseph Voirand song “M’y voilà fille d’un certain âge” (edited by Terres d'Empreintes in the CD-book “Bella Louison”).
We are proud to finally receive her at Feufliâzhe, almost three years later. Since then she has been performing in concert, but far from home, in Brittany, her mother's country.
Although she has developed a larger repertoire than the traditional one, to which the harp is often attached, she also likes to perform pieces from this repertoire adding her original arrangements.
She is all sweetness with her harp and her voice, she loves her boyfriend, her cat and her beautiful knitted sweaters. Her light fingers create her music with great freedom in various styles and settings. Her offbeat compositions allow her to thrive in unexpected projects alongside other artists, such as with a hip-hop dancer or with an actress with whom she works on surrealist poetry (her great-great-grand-uncle was a poet, it was nothing less than Saint-Pol-Roux himself!) building up a project that stimulates the imagination and invites to travel.
The fascinating instrument explored by Lise is the hybrid product of the succession of harps throughout history. Learn more here.
An Irish proverb from the 13th century shows the importance of the harp in the Middle ages Celtic world: "three objects are not seizable by justice: the book, the harp and the sword". Although its use declined towards the 16th century, and the manufacture of this instrument was lost, a revival movement emerged at the end of the 19th century and both musicians and luthiers from the 50s and 60s of the 20th century started to work again on the harp, even electifying it as Alan Cochevelou, better known as Alan Stivell, did.
Sixty years after, strong of this tradition, the evolution of the all the compositions of Lise Martin-Le Chêne are softer, almost magical, and they can bring you to a trip to the elves heaven.
Friday night concert
Contacts : lise.mlc@wanadoo.fr
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/lisemartinlechene/
To listen to her unlimitedly : https://soundcloud.com/lisemlc