Love to My Liking

Love to My Liking is an album of medieval trouvère music featuring some of the most sensuous and saucy vocal music of the 13th century on historical instruments.

Close-up of two hands holding each other over an ornate wooden surface with orange and red flowers in the background, and text reading "ALKEMIE" in the top left and "love to my liking" in the bottom right.

Continuing the tradition of the troubadours, the trouvères of Northern France wrote some of the most captivating vocal music of the 13th century. Their songs of public and private adoration wove together allusions both sacred and secular—creating mystical and spicy meditations on love and longing, punctuated by repeating refrains that recur across songs and texts. Alkemie reimagines these courtly love lyrics for our time, transforming songs typically sung for and written by men into passionate evocations by female singers. The lush musical textures are equally informed by historical performance practice, bluegrass, old time, and Celtic music, creating an alien yet familiar soundscape that bridges the past and present.

“Subtle tosses of the voice suggest that even through such emotional turmoil, all might not be lost. Percussive rhythms then slowly build to a frenzy. Even amid the deepest blues, these performances seem to say that there is always a bright side. All one has to do is dance.”
— Aaron Keebaugh, Early Music America
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Six people in vintage clothing and makeup posing in a room with floral wallpaper. They are seated on a sofa and floor, with some holding objects like a round device and a pipe, surrounded by oranges and musical instruments.
Woman with wavy brown hair holding a wine glass, sitting in front of patterned wallpaper; a small white mouse on a book on her lap.
A man with glasses and a beard, wearing a black shirt and colorful floral scarf, sitting in front of a patterned backdrop, holding a glass display case with various butterfly specimens.

Tracy Cowart

voice, harps, percussion; producer

David McCormick

vielle

Man with long hair, glasses, and a beard holding a vintage typewriter in front of patterned wallpaper.
A woman with long, curly, silver hair sits in a cream armchair holding a glass display case with a glowing blue butterfly inside, wearing an orange dress and a beaded choker, against a dark floral wallpaper background.

Charles Mueller

producer, recording engineer

Sian Ricketts

voice, douçaines, recorders; producer

A woman with red hair wearing a green dress and a fur coat draped over her shoulders, sitting against a dark floral wallpaper, holding a tangerine in one hand and an orange in her lap.
A person with short brown hair, wearing a floral dress and hoop earrings, holding an hourglass with white sand and standing in front of floral wallpaper.
A woman with wavy auburn hair, wearing a black floral dress, holding a white teapot, with a gold-colored scarf draped over her shoulders, smiling in front of a floral wallpaper background.
A man with long hair, wearing a dark velvet shirt and vest, sitting and holding a large, textured mushroom in his lap, against a dark, botanical-patterned background.

Elena Mullins-Bailey

voice, lyre, percussion

Ben Matus

hümmelchen

Produced by Tracy Cowart, Charles Mueller, and Ellie Sutherland.
Engineered by Charles Mueller.
Mastered by Mike Tierney.
Recorded at Oktaven Audio & Tiny Panther Recording, Mount Vernon NY, July 2022.
Executive Producer Sian Ricketts.
Photography by Anja Schutz.
Cover art and design by Haeg Design.
© 2023 • BSTV-0195 • brightshiny.ninja •

Produced by Tracy Cowart, Charles Mueller, and Ellie Sutherland. Engineered by Charles Mueller. Mastered by Mike Tierney. Recorded at Oktaven Audio and Tiny Panther Recording, Mount Vernon, NY, July 2022. Executive Producer Sian Ricketts. Photography by Anja Schütz. Cover art and design by Haeg Design.

Niccolo Seligmann

vielles, viola a chiavi, psaltery, scheitholt, gittern, percussion

Ellie Sutherland

voice