Following their debut album Unfurl, Fran & Flora released their second studio album Precious Collection on Hidden Notes Records last year to critical acclaim, presenting uniquely reworked Yiddish material and original compositions for cello, violin, electronics, voices and drums.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Griep Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely
00:06to speak to Fran and Flora. Now, you're on your way to Sound St Leonard's playing a date
00:11on February the 27th, and goodness, exciting times. Tell me about how you first got together.
00:17Flora, you've been together collaborating for a while now.
00:22Yeah, our collaboration as a duo has been going for 10 years, which is quite some time
00:27now, but we've known each other for closer to 15, having worked together in those initial
00:32five years in different bands and projects, and then going to study with different people
00:38after we realised we really both connected over klezmer and Romanian and Transylvanian
00:44music. That was our kind of core love that brought us together. And then after that,
00:50we decided to make our own band and work on material with just the two of us, violin and
00:55cello. And yeah, it all started from there, really.
00:59And Fran, why is violin and cello a good combination for what you're doing?
01:04Well, I mean, who doesn't love violin and cello, number one? And also, we can really
01:10cover all the bases musically, for example, like pitch, from the highest highs to the
01:17lowest lows. We've got rhythm, we've got melody, everything in between. And we also sing.
01:25So we sing songs in Yiddish, sometimes in Romanian as well. So we kind of incorporate
01:32voices at moments, and we also bring in live electronics to kind of augment the sound.
01:39But yeah, everything's interwoven. So it's not all at once, except occasionally. And
01:46yeah, I think it's quite a dynamic combination, to be honest, it's like endless possibilities.
01:53That sounds fantastic. And Flora, you had an album last year. Tell me about the album.
01:58Yeah, we released our second album, Precious Collection, in April 2024. And this record
02:05we self-produced, it was just the two of us, we decided to take the risk and just try and
02:12go for it without a producer, see what happened and open the possibilities for where we wanted
02:19to go, if it's just the two of us in the room. We did work with some amazing engineers
02:24in the process as well, so that facilitated our process. And this record is predominantly
02:32the two of us, but we also had a drummer, two drummers actually, Ursula Russell and
02:38Simon Roth, and they both came and added their magic. So we had drum kit and then more traditional
02:46Ukrainian poik for one of the tracks. And then we also had some field recordings and
02:53piano, what do you call it, treated piano. So like just the plucking of the strings and
03:00a little bit of more regular piano as well. So yeah, other sounds as well as our instruments.
03:06That's great. And Fran, obviously you're playing Sound St Leonard's February 27th.
03:11Is this part of a tour you're doing? Are you heading towards a new album? What's happening?
03:17Oh, she's gone. Shall I answer this question? Please do, yes. Yeah. So yeah, we're playing
03:27Sound St Leonard's and then we're, this is our, I think the third time we've played in
03:32St Leonard's, so we're very excited to be back. It's been several years since we were last there.
03:37And then we're off to Dorset and we're also playing at Fire in the Mountain Festival and
03:43Stoney Live Festival and Clare's Canada, Clare's North. And we have a few others in the works
03:52for London. And oh, we're also playing at Manchester Folk Festival in March.
03:58Well, good luck with all that. Lovely to speak.
04:02Even if we...
04:02And to you.
04:04Very much indeed.
04:04Thanks very much.
04:05Bye bye.
04:06Bye.